Home Assistant install on Proxmox + container setup, LXC

I have to admit that Proxmox(PX) simplifies your life ! 😎 

So why this confession ? Well, I started up in the Virtual Machines(VM) world with Linux KVM/QEMU and despite the Virtual Machine Manager GUI the PX GUI helps you a lot. Not to forget that PX have built in administration of Linux containers, LXC.

So this post will be a short introduction to why PX, Home Assistant(HA) setup in PX and a quick tour for containers.

Proxmox vs Linux KVM/QEMU and LXC

Proxmox is fundamentally built on top of Linux KVM and QEMU, meaning it uses the exact same core virtualization technology. For most users it easier because it bundles that technology into a unified, out-of-the-box platform with a built-in web GUI, high-availability clustering, centralized storage, and integrated backups.

1. Centralized Web Interface (GUI)Instead of relying on third-party tools like Virt-manager or complex XML configs, Proxmox provides a slick, production-ready web GUI. You can create VMs, manage networks, and spin up LXC containers from any browser.

2. Built-in LXC ContainerizationProxmox natively supports Linux Containers (LXC) alongside full VMs. Containers have near-native performance and use fewer system resources than virtual machines, making them perfect for maximizing your hardware efficiency.

3. Clustering and High Availability (HA)With raw KVM, setting up multi-node clustering and high-availability failover requires significant manual orchestration (like Pacemaker/Corosync). Proxmox has a robust, drag-and-drop cluster manager, allowing you to easily configure failover, storage replication, and zero-downtime live migrations of VMs between nodes.

4. Enterprise-Grade BackupsProxmox integrates seamlessly with Proxmox Backup Server, providing fast, incremental, deduplicated, and client-side encrypted backups. You can easily schedule automated snapshots and backups with just a few clicks.

5. Advanced Storage Management Proxmox simplifies complex storage pools. It has native support for ZFS and Ceph, allowing you to natively manage storage replication, software RAID, and distributed file systems without writing backend scripts.

KVM/QEMU and LXC are better when you want a minimal footprint and raw control over the Linux kernel without the added overhead of a bundled management UI.

Proxmox install

There is a lot of info available so here just a link to the Proxmox manual and some guiding if you are installing on a Mac and don't succed.

On the Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts site there are several helper script and this post install script helps you on the way.

Home Assistant(HA) install

The really simple way is using the Home Assistant OS script.

If you would like to have full control the following could be a way ...

On the HA release site find the file with extension ".qcow2.xz" and copy the URL.

In PX check "Datacenter => Storage". Probably a storage with ID "local" is shown. "Edit" and check that in the "Content" dropdown also "Import" is included.

In "Proxmox => Shell => "cd /var/lib/vz/import" and then use the the URL from the HA site together with "wget"

wget https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/18.1/haos_ova-18.1.qcow2.xz

and decompress "unxz haos_ova-18.1.qcow2.xz"

Proxmox => Create WM => Name => ”HA” => Advanced => Start at Boot

Next => OS

Do not use any media 
Next => System
Select ”Qemu Agent”
BIOS => OVMF(UEFI)
Add EFI Disk => Select
Next => Disks
Delete disc ”scsi0” via trashcan
Select ”Discard”
Import => ”Select Image” the HA .qcow2 file
Next => CPU
Sockets 1
Cores 2
Next => Memory => 4096
Next => Network, will probably show ”vmbr0”

Confirm !

Select the chosen guest ID and then ”Start” and check that HA is alive in ”Console”. Then go to "homeassistant.local:8123" and do your thing !

If you are new to HA here is a post "easy start".

Container, LXC, install

Instead of a complete VM you can, in the same PX interface, install a very lightweight container. In my case I wanted to have a separate Node-RED install, outside HA, running on Debian 13.

First you have to download a tempate 

Datacenter => Proxmox => local (Proxmox)=> CT Templates => Templates => Debian 13 => Select => Download

Then "Create CT" and go on with 

Node => Proxmox

CT ID => 208

Hostname => Debian

Password => nnnnn (At least 5 characters long !!)

Confirm password => nnnnn

Next => Template 

Storage      => local

Template     => debian -13-standard….

Next => Disks 

Storage      => local-lvm

Disk size    => 8

Next => CPU

Cores        => 2

Next => Memory

Memory       => nn

Swap     => nn

Next => Network

Firewall     => Deselect

iPv4         => DHCP

Next => DNS

Next => Confirm => Finish

In PX select the created container and ”Start”

”Console => Log in => root => Password => nnnnn

test it and then do the application install. Just installing the Debian LXC server is less than 700 MB of disk use. Nice !!

Installing Node-RED is done in this post !