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
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.