Or perhaps you are interested in monitoring the Unraid home automation server powering the platform and receiving a notification whenever the CPU reaches a certain temperature? You guessed it, Home Assistant is the answer. Want to tune those lights depending on the weather, the current brightness of the room, or whether the film you are watching on Plex is playing or paused? Again, Home Assistant makes it possible.
Want to turn on your Nanoleaf light panels whenever you boot your PC or turn on the TV? With Home Assistant, you can. Want to combine Zigbee, Wi-Fi, and Z-Wave under one roof? With Home Assistant, you can.
Thanks to Unraid, even you can run the best home automation software on your own home automation server. Home Assistant integrates with over 1800 services, which allows you to do just about anything using your smart devices. If you want to support the development, there is the option of signing up to Home Assistant Cloud, but it is not a necessity. There are no required subscription fees and the software is yours to keep. Home Assistant gives you the power of home automation without having to connect to any cloud services. You can control Transmission’s turtle mode, check the activity of your Plex Media Server, or enable one of AdGuard’s many functions. Not only does Home Assistant integrate with physical objects in your smart home, such as lights, locks, and shutters, but also other applications you might be hosting on your Unraid server. Home Assistant takes over the role of the central hub of an Unraid-powered home automation server. Its popularity has even led it to be featured on the Linus Tech Tips YouTube channel not once, but twice, exposing it to millions of viewers. Home Assistant is the do-it-all platform that has gone from strength to strength in the last year or so, and it is now the second most popular Python project on GitHub. The device you paid for is yours, and no one can take its functionality away. With local control, you are not reliant on any company’s cloud servers or services. In these situations, you will either be left with an expensive paperweight or, as is the case in the latter example, an unlockable paperweight tied to a monthly payment. Others might decide to suddenly introduce a monthly subscription to a service that was previously free.
Vendors will frequently decide that they are no longer interested in supporting a certain product. This isn’t just important in case your internet goes down. The most frightening part of this thought experiment is that it actually happens all the time. Everything you once had saved is gone: Your Google Drive files, your Google Photos uploads, and any purchases you might have made on the Google Play Store.
And because you were travelling, you missed the generous three-day window to download your data. One day, you receive an obviously automated message: Your Google account has been shut down for an unnamed terms-of-service violation. Picture this: You are hosting all of your data on Google’s cloud serves, including important documents you might need for next year’s taxes and photos of your children growing up. Before introducing any applications, I want to explain why local is better, for those just starting out on this wonderful journey. It sits somewhere between a pre-built NAS and more complex operating systems such as TrueNAS CORE. I am aware that Unraid isn’t just aimed at advanced users such as you and me, but is also seen as an entry in to self-hosting. The case for local - Why you should be self-hosting
How to install Home Assistant on your Unraid home automation server.Home Assistant: The controlling platform.Internet connectivity isn’t a necessity.The case for local - Why you should be self-hosting.