How to run Home Assistant on proxmox

Running Home Assistant on Proxmox is the most flexible approach for a local-first smart home. You get full control over your automation hub, avoid cloud dependencies, and can run additional services alongside it. Here’s how to do it right.

Why Proxmox Makes Sense

Proxmox VE is a free, open-source hypervisor that runs on bare metal. Unlike Home Assistant OS, installing on Proxmox gives you a proper virtual machine with more resources and flexibility. You can run multiple containers or VMs on the same hardware—think Home Assistant, a Zigbee coordinator, a network monitoring tool, and maybe a media server.

The tradeoff is you lose the supervised install experience. Updates aren’t as automatic, and you handle your own backups. But for anyone serious about local control, this is the better path.

Recommended hardware for a Proxmox Home Assistant host includes compact PCs like the Beelink EQ13 or Beelink SER6 MAX. These have enough CPU and RAM to run Home Assistant plus other services. The Intel NUC 12 Pro is another solid option if you want something more established.

Setting Up the Home Assistant VM

The easiest approach is downloading the official Home Assistant OS image and converting it to a Proxmox VM. The Home Assistant documentation walks through this, but the basics are: create a new VM in Proxmox, attach the downloaded image as a CD drive, and boot from it.

Assign at least 2 vCPUs and 4GB RAM to start. If you plan to run many integrations or heavy automations, bump that to 8GB. Storage should be at least 32GB, though more is better for logs and addons.

Set the VM to start on boot so your smart home comes back online after power outages. Proxmox handles this automatically if you enable the “Start at boot” option in the VM settings.

Proxmox Configuration Essentials

Disable the Proxmox firewall if your Home Assistant instance will only run on your local network. The firewall adds complexity you probably don’t need for a home setup.

Configure the network as a bridge mode so your VM gets an IP from your router’s DHCP server. This makes discovery easier and keeps things consistent with your other devices.

For storage, use Proxmox’s local storage or NFS if you have a NAS. Having enough disk space matters for the Home Assistant database, which grows over time. Monitor disk usage and clean up old data periodically.

Backups are critical. Proxmox can backup the entire VM, but I recommend also using Home Assistant’s built-in backup to cloud storage or a local network location. Keep at least two recent backups.

Networking for Local-First Smart Home

Your Home Assistant VM needs a static IP. Configure this in your router’s DHCP settings by reserving an IP address for the VM’s MAC address. This matters because integrations like Zigbee and Z-Wave controllers need consistent addressing.

If you’re adding hardware like a Zigbee USB dongle, pass it through to the VM using Proxmox’s USB passthrough. The SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus (E) or ConBee III are common choices. USB passthrough gives Home Assistant direct access to the device.

For integrations requiring network discovery, make sure your router doesn’t isolate the Home Assistant device. Everything should be on the same broadcast domain.

Quick verdict: Proxmox gives you the most flexibility for running Home Assistant alongside other smart home services. The Home Assistant Green or Home Assistant Yellow are simpler alternatives if you want turnkey hardware, but Proxmox wins for control and expandability.