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Home Assistant OS setup

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Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform. It runs best as a VM running Home Assistant OS (HAOS) — a purpose-built Linux distribution that manages its own container runtime. This is not a Docker Compose setup; HAOS handles that internally.

For a homelab, HAOS on Proxmox is the standard approach. The alternative — running Home Assistant Container in Docker — skips the supervisor and add-on ecosystem, which is a meaningful loss.

  • 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 32 GB disk minimum
  • Machine type: q35 with UEFI (OVMF)
  • Static IP via DHCP reservation (HA’s integrations break if the IP changes)

Install on Proxmox

  1. Download the HAOS .qcow2 image from home-assistant.io/installation
  2. Create a VM: q35, OVMF BIOS, 32 GB disk, 4 GB RAM
  3. Import the disk: 
    qm importdisk <VMID> haos_ova-<version>.qcow2 local-lvm
  4. Attach the imported disk as the boot disk (SCSI 0), remove the default disk
  5. Set boot order to the imported disk
  6. Start the VM — HAOS boots, then access http://<VM_IP>:8123

Smart home integrations

HAOS discovers most devices automatically. The MQTT stack integrates as follows:

ServiceHow HA connects
MosquittoMQTT integration — Settings → Devices & Services → MQTT
Zigbee2MQTTAuto-discovered via MQTT after Mosquitto is configured
Z-Wave JS UIAuto-discovered via MQTT after Mosquitto is configured
UniFiUniFi integration — device presence tracking

After connecting Mosquitto, Zigbee and Z-Wave devices appear automatically — no YAML entity configuration needed.

MQTT setup

Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → MQTT:

  • Broker: <MOSQUITTO_IP>
  • Port: 1883
  • Username / Password: if auth is enabled on Mosquitto

Enable discovery and set the discovery prefix to homeassistant (matches the default in Zigbee2MQTT and Z-Wave JS UI).

Backup

Settings → System → Backups → Create backup.

HAOS backups include all configuration, automations, integrations, and history. Back up before any migration or major update. Backups can be stored on a network share: Settings → System → Backups → Configure backup location.

Restore

  1. Boot a fresh HAOS VM
  2. Complete onboarding, then: Settings → System → Backups → Upload backup
  3. Select the backup and restore — HA restarts and comes back as the original instance

Port

8123 — web UI and API. No reverse proxy required for local access; add one (e.g., Nginx Proxy Manager) if you want external access via HTTPS.

See also