I am sorely tired of using Windows as a host for the many understood issues. It is currently running as a VMWare client. I am thinking about using the same computer, new SSD, and Linux running VMWare host. This way, I can just move the machine.
I have a ZWave adapter, Zigbee adapter, and a NUT UPS integration, along with MQTT integration, etc. I am looking for the smoothest way to reconnect these devices and get things up and running. I donât know how I need to remap the USB devices and what else I have to do.
My system is down right now because of Windows and I donât want to spend the time to fix it, but I do the VMWare HA image backed up.
Questions: Do you recommend to go Linux/VMWare, run the same client, and remap the devices, or go the fresh Linux route? Why? What are the steps I should look out for and how do I remap things?
I would suggest using a separate computer as a server running a bare-metal Virtual Machine hypervisor, such as VMWare or Proxmox. On this machine you can then run HAOS natively in one Virtual Machine, plus whatever other VMs you might choose. I personally upgraded to a used business PC (Dell Optiplex 7050 Small Form Factor) cheap on ebay. There are plenty of guides for this sort of thing in the Community Guides section of this forum.
I recommend keeping your day-to-day desktop PC environment separate because, well for the reasons you mentioned - so that rebooting or updating does not also mean taking your home automations down.
As for swapping from Windows to linux on your desktop PC ⌠It took me three tries before I felt comfortable with linux. There are FOSS equivalents for most popular windows apps (which makes it easy) ⌠but anything out of the ordinary seems to involve a fair âlearning curveâ, which is turned into a mountain by so many of the internet articles and forum posts being out of date.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I plan to do HAOS. Itâs how itâs running now in VMWare. Any suggestions on how to identify and relink all the USB devices? I ran NUT on my host PC, how do I reestablish that connection without Windows? I presume MQTT will continue to work since itâs layer 3?
as far as usb, if you are running bare metal you can just remap the device paths accordingly, otherwise you would need to map the usb devices via whatever hypervisor first.
if I recall correctly, the restore will usually detect and configure the devices as needed
@tmjpugh, @PecosKidd, @donburch888, @Saoshen, thanks for all the input. I want to avoid Proxmox and Docker simply because they would be a learning curve. I do have a dedicated computer â thatâs running Windows, HAOS VMWare and a couple other processes. I want to convert it to Linux and with my limited reading I can either run HAOS directly on the machine or, say, Ubuntu VMWarre. I presume HAOS direct is better, but VMWare gives me more use of the machine. Iâd like some opinions on this.
Also, regarding restore, I do have backups, but can I also restore from Nabu Casa?
Lastly, again, I am concerned about how I will relink all the hardware devices, such as ZWave, Zigbee, and NUT.
I prefer and recommend a bare metal HAOS install on a dedicated machine, a used micro pc should be cheap and work perfectly for most things. non windows 11 compatible computers are plentiful and super cheap.
Virtualizing and sharing the host is great and all, until your vmâs are using the resources and slowing down your HA. Virtualization is also another layer of complexity and maintenance and point of failure.
Yes you can restore from nabu casa, make sure you have the encryption key saved.
Just to be clear HAOS directly on the metal really limits your other options of usage with the machine.
HAOS is meant to only run HA, not other stuff and it has no GUI either.
My opinion is Proxmox bare metal is the way to go. Then, the helper script at Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts to install HAOS. Pass through any USB devices needed. Restore from a backup of your current system.
I went from ESXi to Proxmox this way. So smooth.
And, better than bare metal HAOS as you can use the computer for other things as well. Of course, this is the same benefit of bare metal linux with docker. I personally find Proxmox easier.
Thanks for all the replies. I have plenty computers around so HAOS on bare metal is an option, but my hope was to run HAOS in VM and Unifi Server OS on the host. I ended up with Ubuntu and VMWare. Things came up fine except for ZWave. The Zigbee and ZWave dongles remapped fine, but for some reason some of the device names are lost and they are no longer connected to the automations, etc.