Running Home Assistant on Proxmox VE

Why Home Assistant on Proxmox?

Home Assistant is the leading open-source home automation platform, supporting thousands of smart home devices and integrations. Running it on Proxmox VE instead of a dedicated Raspberry Pi gives you better performance, more reliable storage, snapshot and backup capabilities, and the ability to run Home Assistant alongside your other services on a single machine.

The recommended approach is to run Home Assistant OS (HAOS) as a full VM. This gives you the complete Home Assistant experience including the Supervisor, add-on store, and automatic updates — features you lose if you install Home Assistant Core in a container.

Method 1: Community Helper Script (Easiest)

The Proxmox community maintains helper scripts that automate HAOS VM creation. This is the fastest way to get started:

# Run from the Proxmox host shell
bash -c "$(wget -qLO - https://community-scripts.github.io/ProxmoxVE/scripts/vm/haos-vm.sh)"

The script will prompt you for VM settings (ID, storage, CPU, RAM) and then automatically download the latest HAOS image, create the VM, import the disk, and configure everything. For most users, the default settings work well: 2 cores, 4 GB RAM, and 32 GB disk.

Note: Always review community scripts before running them. You can check the script source at the project's GitHub repository to understand what it does before execution.

Method 2: Manual VM Creation

If you prefer to set things up yourself, download the HAOS QCOW2 image and create the VM manually:

# Download the latest HAOS image
wget https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/14.2/haos_ova-14.2.qcow2.xz
unxz haos_ova-14.2.qcow2.xz

# Create the VM (do not attach a disk yet)
qm create 400 --name homeassistant \
  --memory 4096 \
  --cores 2 \
  --cpu host \
  --bios ovmf \
  --machine pc-q35-9.0 \
  --efidisk0 local-lvm:1,efitype=4m \
  --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 \
  --ostype l26 \
  --agent enabled=1

# Import the HAOS disk image
qm importdisk 400 haos_ova-14.2.qcow2 local-lvm

# Attach the imported disk
qm set 400 --scsihw virtio-scsi-pci --scsi0 local-lvm:vm-400-disk-1
qm set 400 --boot order=scsi0

# Resize the disk to 32GB (HAOS image is only ~2GB)
qm resize 400 scsi0 32G

# Start the VM
qm start 400

After the VM boots, Home Assistant will take a few minutes to initialize. Access it at http://your-vm-ip:8123 and create your user account.

USB Passthrough for Zigbee and Z-Wave

Many smart home setups use USB radio sticks for Zigbee (e.g., SONOFF Zigbee Dongle, ConBee II) or Z-Wave (e.g., Zooz ZST10, Aeotec Z-Stick). You need to pass these USB devices through to the Home Assistant VM.

First, identify the USB device on the Proxmox host:

# List USB devices on the Proxmox host
lsusb

# Example output:
# Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1a86:55d4 QinHeng Electronics SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2
# Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0658:0200 Sigma Designs Z-Wave Controller

Pass the USB device to the VM using the vendor and product ID:

# Pass the Zigbee dongle to the Home Assistant VM
qm set 400 --usb0 host=1a86:55d4

# Pass the Z-Wave controller
qm set 400 --usb1 host=0658:0200

# Restart the VM for changes to take effect
qm reboot 400

Using vendor:product IDs instead of bus numbers ensures the passthrough survives USB port changes and host reboots. Inside Home Assistant, the devices will appear as /dev/ttyUSB0 or /dev/ttyACM0 and can be configured through the Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA) or Z-Wave JS integrations.

Configuring Backups

Home Assistant is one of the most critical services in a smart home — losing your configuration, automations, and device history is painful. Set up backups at two levels:

Proxmox-level backups capture the entire VM disk, including the OS:

# Create a scheduled backup job (daily at 2 AM)
# Go to Datacenter > Backup > Add in the Proxmox UI, or use:
pvesh create /cluster/backup \
  --vmid 400 \
  --storage local \
  --schedule "0 2 * * *" \
  --mode snapshot \
  --compress zstd \
  --maxfiles 7

Home Assistant-level backups are managed through Settings > System > Backups inside Home Assistant. These back up your configuration, automations, add-ons, and database. You can schedule automatic backups and store them on a network share or cloud storage using add-ons like the Google Drive or Samba backup add-ons.

For maximum safety, use both backup methods. Proxmox backups protect against disk failures and catastrophic issues, while Home Assistant backups let you restore your configuration to a fresh installation quickly.

Essential Add-ons

After the initial setup, install these commonly used add-ons from Settings > Add-ons:

• File Editor — Edit configuration YAML files directly in the browser.
• Terminal & SSH — Shell access to the HAOS system for advanced troubleshooting.
• Mosquitto MQTT Broker — Required for many IoT devices and integrations.
• Zigbee2MQTT — Alternative to ZHA with broader device support and more configuration options.
• Studio Code Server — VS Code in the browser for advanced configuration editing.

Monitoring Your Smart Home Infrastructure

Home Assistant runs 24/7 and controls your lights, locks, thermostat, and security systems. If the VM goes down, your automations stop working. Proxmox's web UI lets you monitor the VM, but when you are away from home and your smart devices stop responding, you need a fast way to check the infrastructure. ProxmoxR lets you check your Home Assistant VM status and restart it from your phone — useful when you notice your automations have stopped while you are out.

Running Home Assistant on Proxmox gives you a reliable, high-performance smart home platform with proper backup and recovery capabilities. Start with the community script for a quick setup, add your USB devices for Zigbee or Z-Wave, and configure regular backups to protect your investment in automation.