This is my Home Assistant build in 2023. This setup utilizes multiple Add-Ons and Resources.
This setup utilizes Hyper-V
This honestly is documentation for me to refer to when building or rebuilding, but feel free to follow along.
- Install Hyper-V
- Install Home Assistant for Hyper-V
- SSH & Web Terminal
- HACS
- Samba Share
- Portainer
- Homebridge Instance with Plugins
- Add-Ons
- Configuration.yaml
- Adding Emby
- Adding Blue Iris Video Clips
- Automating Clips Cleanup
I utilize Blue Iris for my NVR and send a 30 second clip to Home Assistant for review in a card after it convertes to mp4. I will review how I handle disk space with automations in Home Assistant to maintain the disk space on the Home Assistant VM. I utilize Emby for my home media server, and will review how to show what is playing on what device as well as the latest downloaded movies.
On the Windows desktop, select the Start button and type any part of the name Windows PowerShell.
Right-click Windows PowerShell and select Run as Administrator.
Install-WindowsFeature -Name Hyper-V -IncludeManagementTools -Restart- Download Home Assistant for Hyper-V - Home Assistant Install Options - Hyper-V
- Extract the Zip downloaded
- Open Hyper-V
- Action > New > Virtual Machine
- Select Generation 2 during install
- I usually give it 4096 MB (4 GB of Memory)
- Dont use Dynamic Memory
- Connect it to your NIC
- Use an existing disk
- Select the .vhdx you extracted earlier from the downloaded Home Assistant appliance (the HA download)
- Do not start the VM yet
- Right-Click the VM and select Settings
- Select Security > Un-check 'Enable Secure Boot' then click apply
- Select Hard Drive > Edit > Expand > Next > Size: 200 GB plus> Next > Finish
- I do this because we are going to send Blue Iris .mp4 clips to a folder structure and need more storage
- Once the drive is completed select Apply/OK
- Power on your new HA VM (right-click start)
- Note: Look into Checkpoints they can help you restore along the way. I suggest maybe making one daily as you edit.
- If you got an error stating it could not find a boot device, ensure you disabled secure boot on the VM.
- You can now see your IP if you right-click your VM and select connect.
- In Example: 192.168.1.69:8123
- After a few minutes home assistant will prompt you for some info, fill out the form.
- Log in to Home Assistant
- Select your user icon in the bottom left corner
- Enable Advanced Mode for your user
- Select Settings from the left hand side menu
- Select Add-Ons
- Select the Add-On Store button in the lower right-hand corner
- Search SSH
- Install Terminal & SSH or Advanced SSH & Web Terminal (I prefer the Advanced Add-On)
- Select Start on boot, Auto update, and Show in sidebar. Click Start
- Watch the log to ensure it starts properly, and address any errors
- Sample Config for the Advanced Add-On:
Username: root (Note: Has to be root)
Password: Password123
authorized_keys: []
sftp: true
compatibility_mode: false
allow_agent_forwarding: false
allow_remote_port_forwarding: false
allow_tcp_forwarding: false- Ensure you click Save after changing your config (the first save not the bottom one)
- The add-on will not start without a password configured
- Root is required for using external apps
- I use MobaXTerm Personal free portable edition for SSH
Read more on HACS here: https://hacs.xyz/
We are going to install HACS via terminal with a easy install command.
- Select the new SSH icon in the left side menu
- Type the following into the terminal
wget -O - https://get.hacs.xyz | bash - - Now you have HACS installed
- Select Setting from the left side menu > System > Select the Power button in the top right corner > Restart Home Assistant
- Now go to Settings > Devices & Services > Add Intergration > Search HACS > Select all the acknowledgments > Submit > Follow the directions to enter the github key.
- I add HACS to a new area titled 'Backend'
- HACS now appears in the left hand menu
I use a SMB sometimes to do a quick edit, or move stuff around. I map the drive to my computer for quick browsing, or backups. Lets install a Samba add-on.
- Settings > Addons > Add-On Store > Search Samba or find it on the list fromt he repositories.
- Click Install
- Auto Update
- Select Configuration from up-top
- Set a Username/Password
- Set a allowed subet
- In Example if my home router DHCP is broadcasting 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 I would want to allow 192.168.1.0/24
- Read more about CIDR here: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/network/cidr.html
- More about RFC1918 Private Subnets here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network
- More about mapping shares to your computer here: https://superuser.com/questions/570928/mapping-a-smb-share-in-windows
- In Example Map: \192.168.1.69\config
I am installing Portainer. I utilize Portainer for HomeBridge. HomeBridge is a virtual Apple HomeKit that allows me to add a few things easier. Sometimes if products are not supported in Home Assistant, or the process is way too much, then ill just see if I can add it to HomeBridge. In this document I will add my Google Nest Thermostats, SwitchBot Tilt Blinds, and my Home Alarm using HomeBridge.
- In Home Assistant select Settings > Add-ons > Add-On Store
- Click the three dots in the top right-hand corner, we need to add a repository
- Add: https://github.com/alexbelgium/hassio-addons, then close
- Refresh the Add-On Store page now
- Uptop in the search field search for Portainer
- Select Portainer
- Select Install
- Once its installed enable Auto Update, and Show in Sidebar
- Disable Protection Mode
- Select the Configuration
- Change the password and save
- Go back to Info and click Start
- Select Open in UI
- Default User is admin (lowercase)
- Password is what you set earlier in the Portainer configuration
- Its going to require you to change your password, your choice, you can select remind me later.
- Select Live Connect
- Select Stacks
- Select Add stack
- Name your stack uptop ie: homebridge (this must be lowercase aplhanumeric with underscores or dashes only)
- Enter the following into the Web Editor
version: '2'
services:
homebridge:
image: oznu/homebridge:latest
restart: always
network_mode: host
environment:
- PGID=0
- PUID=0
- HOMEBRIDGE_CONFIG_UI=1
- HOMEBRIDGE_CONFIG_UI_PORT=8581
volumes:
- /mnt/data/supervisor/homeassistant/homebridge:/homebridge- Click Deploy Stack
- Let it cook
- Once you see it was successfully deployed you can now visit your homebridge stack
- IP Address is your_ha_ip:8581
- In Example: 192.168.1.69:8581
- You will be welcomed by your HomeBridge select Get Started
- Set a username and password
The first thing I do is update the GUI.
- Plugins > Homebridge UI > Update
- It will reboot
Lets install a plugin. Im going to install my thermostats. The current Nest procedure is way too much. I find this simpler.
I have two Google Nest Thermostats. I am going to install the plugin for those in HomeBridge, and then add them to Home Assistant fromt he HomeBridge.
- Click Plugins
- Search for Nest
- Install the Verified Homebridge nest plugin
In order to add the thermostats to HomeBridge you have to get a couple pieces of information from your Google account. You will want to do this inside a Chromium based browser (Chrome, Edge)
- A great video walkthrough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWlfoy5NRRw
- Open a Chromium based browser tab in Incognito/Private Mode (or clear your cache).
- Open Developer Tools (View/Developer/Developer Tools) or press F12.
- Click on 'Network' tab. Make sure 'Preserve Log' is checked.
- In the 'Filter' box, enter issueToken
- Go to home.nest.com, and click 'Sign in with Google'. Log into your account.
- One network call (beginning with iframerpc) will appear in the Dev Tools window. Click on it.
- In the Headers tab, under General, copy the entire Request URL (beginning with https://accounts.google.com). This is your "issueToken" in config.json.
- In the 'Filter' box, enter oauth2/iframe
- Several network calls will appear in the Dev Tools window. Click on the last iframe call.
- In the Headers tab, under Request Headers, copy the entire cookie (include the whole string which is several lines long and has many field/value pairs - do not include the cookie: name). This is your "cookies" in config.json.
- Do not log out of home.nest.com, as this will invalidate your credentials. Just close the browser tab.
- Restart HomeBridge
- Do you see the Nest products list in the console of HomeBridge? Cool. If not retry.
Now we need to add the HomeBridge to Home Assistant.
- Go to Home Assistant
- Go to Settings
- Go to Devices and Services
- Home Assistant should have discovered the HomeBridge
- Select Configure on the Homebridge Card
- Use the Pairing Code (###-##-###) from the Homebridge Console to pair it to Home Assistant
- Now your thermostats are in Home Assistant
- This is a reliable solution.
- I have never had it fail and have been running it for years without changes other than updating plugins, or adding devices.
- I have never got Homebridge to sync with my Home App on my iPhone.
Here is a list of addons that I use for various things throughout my build. I think I have a few in here that I dont actually use, im not sure so I added them all. I also havent finished my dashboard. I tried to add something from a repository that was unmaintained and broke my Home Assistant and thats what prompted me to document. I ended up restoring the core and recovering my instance, but I didnt think I was going to. When I completed my dashboard I planned on documenting and sharing, but im here early. As I add to my build I will update this document with my latest additions. One thing I will be adding to this dashboard is a sidebar. I am always open to critism, so if there is a better way to do something please let me know.
✅ Add-Ons List.
The first thing im going to do is add all these addons. I usuallay add these via HACS. First im going to make a checkpoint on my Hyper-V instance in case I need to rollback.
- Open Hyper-V
- Select the VM
- Right-click and select checkpoint
Now if I need to rollback I have a easy path. I put my lovelace into yaml mode, then I place all of these add-ons into my config.yaml.
You will want to add the resources one at a time, and reboot your Home Assistant after every install to ensure there is not errors. This will take the guess work out of which change you made caused an issue. All of these are done within HACS so it should be pretty straight forward. If I had to do anything extra I will notate it here.
- Open HACS
- Select Frontend
- Select Explore and Download Repositories
- Search the card name
- Click Download
- It will refresh your Home Assistant
- The card should appear in HACS
Then I add the resources directly to the configuration.
# /=======================\
# | RESOURCES DECLARE |
# \=======================/
# All the resources added
resources:
[
{ url: /hacsfiles/apexcharts-card/apexcharts-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/bar-card/bar-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/button-card/button-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/custom-icons/custom-icons.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/kiosk-mode/kiosk-mode.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/lovelace-layout-card/layout-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/lovelace-more-info-card/more-info-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/lovelace-mushroom/mushroom.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/lovelace-slider-entity-row/slider-entity-row.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/swipe-card/swipe-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/tabbed-card/tabbed-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/mini-media-player/mini-media-player-bundle.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/upcoming-media-card/upcoming-media-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/refreshable-picture-card/refreshable-picture-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/mini-graph-card/mini-graph-card-bundle.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/simple-thermostat/simple-thermostat.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/sidebar-card/sidebar-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/simple-weather-card/simple-weather-card-bundle.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/logbook-card/logbook-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/gallery-card/gallery-card.js, type: module },
{ url: /hacsfiles/tabbed-card/tabbed-card.js, type: module },
{ url: '/local/browser_mod_icon.js?v=0.5', type: module },
{ url: '/local/fonts.css?v=2.1', type: css }
]Lets put the configuration into yaml mode.
Lovelace in Yaml Mode:
# /=======================\
# | YAML MODE |
# \=======================/
lovelace:
mode: yamlSidebar Card: Go to the hacs store and use the repo url https://github.com/DBuit/sidebar-card and add this as a custom repository under settings.
- HACS
- Intergrations
- Three dots menu in the top right
- Add custom repositories
- Repository: https://github.com/DBuit/sidebar-card
- Category: Lovelace
- Add
- Close the window
- Frontend
- Explore and Download
- Now add sidebar
BrowserMod:
- HACS
- Intergrations
- Three dots menu in the top right
- Search BrowserMod
- This will require a reboot
- Go to Settings > Intergrations > Add Intergrations
- Search Browser Mod and Install
- Browser Mod now appears in the lefthand menu.
- You have to go into Browser Mod and Register the browser
- Auto Register as well
- Lock Register
- Click Cast Register
I plan on using Browser Mod to pop-up the doorbell then someone ring it on all screens. If you dont plan on using this mod its not mandatory to install.
Lets go edit the Configuration.yaml, but before doing so lets install Visual Studio Code first for easier editing.
- Settings >Addons > Search
- Search for Studio Code Server
- Install
- Select Auto Update and Show in Sidebar
- Start
- Click Studio Code Server on side menu
- Trust the author(s)
- The Addon will not turn green until you trust the install
Now would be a good time to create another checkpoint on your VM. Go to Hyper-V right click the VM and create one.
Lets add Emby to the install. In the above list there was a upcoming media card addon. We will use this to show what new movies Emby has added lately. I personally use Radarr, etc to auto download media so you never know what latest popular movie will add itself to the server.
- Open Emby and login as an administrator
- Go to Settings in Emby
- Under Advanced in Emby select API Keys
- Create a new API key
- Copy your API key
- Open Home Assistant
- Go to your configuration.yaml
- Add the following:
media_player:
- platform: emby
host: 192.168.1.69
ssl: False
port: 8096
api_key: <paste_your_api_key_here>Now we need to add a sensor entry into configuration.yaml for the upcoming media card. You need to collect your used ID for this entry from Emby.
- Open Emby and go to settings
- Select profile from the left side menu
- Look at the URL in the browser window
- You will see the usedID= in the URL followed by & serverID=
- Copy just the used id value after the equals sign down to the '&'
- Add the following to your configuration.yaml:
sensor:
- platform: emby_upcoming_media
api_key: <enter_your_api_key>
user_id: <enter_your_user_id>
host: 192.168.1.69
port: 8096
ssl: False
max: 10
use_backdrop: true
group_libraries: false
include:
- Movies
- TV ShowsNotice the include entery. I have Movies and TV Shows in the list. Those are the media folders I have on my Emby server. You may have different names for your media folder. You will want to use your media names. Now we can use that sensor on a dashboard. Enter the following on one of your dashboards.
type: custom:upcoming-media-card
entity: sensor.emby_latest_movies
title: Latest Movies
image_style: fanart
max: 6These are the settings I prefer. You can read more about this addon in the link located in the addons table.
Warning: The way I store clips is exposed. I dont allow WAN access to my Home Assistant so im not to worried about it. That and they are 30 second clips of my cameras, which is kind of boring. I placing my clips into the /config/www folder. I place my clips into different folders because I use mutliple dashboards to draw each camera clips. If I want to review clips from one camera, I go to one dashboard, if I want to view the other cameras, I go to their dashboards.
My Folder Structure:
/config
|------www
|-------blueiris
|-----backdoor
|-----frontdoor
|-----sideyard
|-----drivewayOnce I have my folder structure in place I need to allow the media from Blue Iris. In order to do this I add this to the configuration.yaml
homeassistant:
allowlist_external_dirs:
- /config/www/blueiris
media_dirs:
local: /config/www/Now I have to go to Blue Iris and edit each camera sending alerts to the Home Assistant folder of the camera in the above structure.
- Open Blue Iris
- I created a user dedicated to Home Assistant in my Blue Iris
- Settings > Users > Create the user
- Next visit the FTP Servers tab
- I create an FTP connection for each of my folders (4 in total, one for each folder)
- Click the plus symbol
- Description: HA-Sideyard
- Server Type: FTP
- Server Address: Your Home Assistant IP
- Port: 21
- Base Folder: /config/www/blueiris/sideyard/
- Login: User you created
- Idle disconnect I have 90 and Max Connections is 5, but they will never all be used
- Options: Passive transfer mode
- Click Test and it should put a test ftp text file on the folder. If not revisit the directions and try again.
- Now make the other three FTP server connections or how many ever you have
Now lets configure Alert clips to go to these "FTP servers"/Camera directories:
- Right-click a camera
- Camera Settings
- Alerts Tab
- Actions > On Alert
- Use the plus (+) icon to create a new Action
- Im calling mine in this example drivewayAlert
- Select the radio button 'Camera's alert MP4 sec: <enter 30 or whatever you want>
- Click the video options and set those if you want
- Select your sever we configured earlier
- Filename: &CAM.%Y%m%d_%H%M%S%t-Alert
- Do this for each cameras to its respective FTP "Server"
Now you have clips going to your Home Assistant that you can view, right inside Home Assistant. You might ask, why? Well we are going to use one of those addons we install earlier to create a full screen viewer these these 30 second alert clips. I find this useful for review. I no longer have to go to UI3, or open my Blue Iris. I can just go to my Home Assistant and review all the alerts in good detail.
Now that we have these clips duplicating themselves to Home Assistant, we are going to need a way to clean them up. We did expand our drive earlier when we installed the VM in Hyper-V, but still video takes up space. I only like to keep a few days on my Home Assistant. If im really looking for more than the past three days I should be in Blue Iris searching in depth. So we are going to setup some automations to clean the directories out daily, and clean up aything past three days of timestamps. For this we need to create a service. We are going to call it shell_command_rotate_camlog. We will create a trigger every 24 hours to call the service.
- Create a folder called shell_scripts in the config folder of Home Assistant
- Create a shell script in there, you can upload via FTP, SMB, drag and drop it in, however you want to get it there
find /config/www/blueiris/backdoor/ /config/www/blueiris/driveway/ /config/www/blueiris/frontdoor/ /config/www/blueiris/sideyard/ -type f -mtime +3 -deleteshell_command.shell_rotate_camlog# /=======================\
# | INCLUDES DECLARE |
# \=======================/
automation: !include automations.yaml
script: !include scripts.yaml
scene: !include scenes.yaml
shell_command: !include shell_commands.yaml