I just bought a mini PC to use as a Plex Server and realised that maybe it’s a good way to host my Home Assistant instance as well. Currently HA is on a raspberry pi 4.
What’s the best approach to get both running on a mini PC? And is it even the best approach or should I just leave HA the way it is now?
Mini PC I got is the Beelink EQ12
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You can use Docker to run Home Assistant and Plex in containers, or user a hypervisor such as Proxmox and run Home Assistant and Plex in separate virtual machines (VM).
Managing Home Assistant as a container can be a bit more complicated than running Home Assistant OS on bare metal or in a VM. You don’t get access to backup functionality or the add on store for example, more things have to be manually configured
If your Pi 4 is running HA well enough, I would consider continuing to use the Pi. Reliability is key to a happy smart home, and if HA is running on its own hardware you won’t get any interruptions as you tinker with the mini PC. Plus it’s easy to swap in another Pi should you have a hardware failure.
Although VMs and containers can also be easily backed up and restored to new hardware should the need arise…honestly for home use it’s down to personally preference. Experiment and stick with what works best for you. Either way you will learn a lot in the process.
Yeah good call. I might mess around with the mini PC with things like docker and Plex server before I do anything major with HA. I’m not having any issues with HA at the moment and the Pi seems to be going strong for now.
I run mine (plex, sonarr, radarr, home assistant etc) in docker using docker-compose for orchestration
Heres an example one https://github.com/sebgl/htpc-download-box
Homeassistant docker https://hub.docker.com/r/homeassistant/home-assistant/
Is docker very different to HAOS? Anything major I’d have to do differently?
I’ve also heard of doing it using Proxmox, but not sure if there’s any advantages/disadvantages?
Also, thanks so much for those links. Super helpful.
HAOS does the same thing where it runs HA Core (the actual server software) in docker.
There are two possibly major drawbacks to managing docker yourself:
- You’ll have to manage updates, backups, etc.
- You won’t have access to the add-on store. You can still install add-ons by running their docker images but you’ll have to configure their communication channels in addition to everything in point 1.
Proxmox on the other hand manages full virtual machines for you. There is an official HAOS virtual machine image which gives you the benefit of doing everything for you while still allowing you to run other virtual machines alongside it. Proxmox can manage full VM backups for you and collects performance statistics for each VM. Main drawback would be the added complexity and increased resource usage.
Docker is sort of like a virtual machine but lighter than a VM. Proxmox I think is a virtual machine host?
https://geekflare.com/docker-vs-virtual-machine/
Personally I would leave HAOS on the Pi as it currently is, and then look at running the rest of the stack (Plex server and then whatever else you want) on the mini PC
Sorry for the dumb question, but would I be able to achieve something similar to the Plex server Docker config you shared, but without docker? If I don’t bother trying to get HA running on the same mini PC?
I might have a play around with the mini PC before I try do anything major with HA.
Edit: have found a couple guides, so will try it out.
Hey if you haven’t heard, HAOS has a community add-on for Plex - which is basically docker instance of Plex under the hood.
You might wanna check that out.
I would give priority to HAOS because it removes a ton of setup headaches with other add-ons you might use like Z2M until you establish a proper home lab pipeline.
You’d lose the add-on store if you go the HA docker route and you’d have to manage some networking config within docker if you need to setup other containers to be used with HA - Eg: MariaDB, MQTT Servers, etc…
Put Linux on it and then use docker container
For HASS yeah Docker will do (that’s what I run). I think there’s also a snap package available.
Plex had a native Debian package if you add the Plex repo, so it’s super easy to install and update.
Forgot to add, I got 16gb ram and 500gb hard drive.
