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As I’ve begun to use Home Assistant more and more, I realized that my setup had become quite limited in scalability. I ran it alongside my other containers on my TrueNAS home server, and it got the job done for basic automation. However, a number of problems made me realize that it wasn’t sustainable in the long term, prompting me to set up the Ayaneo AM01 as a Proxmox host, where I then migrated Home Assistant and my other home-related services to. With how it turned out, I couldn’t be happier.
There are a few reasons why I did it, though. Some are with a focus on a long-term goal, while others gave me more immediate benefits. So far, all of the benefits have played out exactly as I hoped. Home Assistant OS is great, I can use add-ons, and my Zigbee connections are significantly improved thanks to the fact that I have more options for where I can place this machine, thanks to its size.
A separate Proxmox host is more stable in my case
Plus, Home Assistant OS is simply better
While this is definitely user-dependent, the Proxmox host that I’ve migrated to is infinitely more stable than my TrueNAS setup. That’s absolutely not a knock on TrueNAS either; it was entirely of my own doing that TrueNAS was “unstable” for Home Assistant. I do a lot of experimentation on my NAS, playing with new configurations and settings that sometimes entirely crash the server. When that happened, that also meant Home Assistant went down too, which was incredibly annoying. Not only did it mean my home automation broke, but applications such as AccuWeather with limited API usage would sometimes run out of free requests before the day was over, as Home Assistant will query those APIs on boot to refresh the data.
With that, though, comes another major benefit: Home Assistant OS. Home Assistant OS is a Linux-based operating system that runs Home Assistant Supervisor in a container, with the Docker container engine controlling Home Assistant Core. Supervisor also controls add-ons, which are Docker containers installed alongside Home Assistant, but managed from within Home Assistant. It’s the recommended way to run it, as it manages everything for you without any need to go tinkering with containers and other configuration files. Even for someone who is proficient in Linux and Docker, it just makes things easier.
As an aside, I find that sometimes, tech communities can feel a sense of ire directed at those looking for the “easy way out,” so to speak, which I have seen negative attention of a similar variety directed at Home Assistant OS users. Criticisms like “you can just install add-ons as external containers instead” are quite common, but sometimes, the most efficient way to approach something is also the easiest way to approach it, and that’s what Home Assistant OS offers. It’s a streamlined approach to adding additional functionality to an already incredible piece of software, and ensures that it all just works. There’s no shame in recognizing the ease and simplicity of one approach, but likewise, I respect those who opt to go for the “do everything manually” approach, as you can learn a lot and, in the long run, have even more control. Both are valid, and it’s all a matter of personal preference.
