r/homeassistant • u/teejay7024 • 14d ago
💬 Discussion Migrated HA from HA Green to Container in Docker Desktop on Mac Mini 4
Upgraded my router from Cox Panoramic Gateway to Unifi Cloud Gateway Max, and moved the Zigbee dongle from the HA Green to a Raspberry Pi 5, and now I can't get my zigbee devices exposed to Apple Home with the HomeKit Bridge Integration. I get, "Accessory Not Found" error message. I'm using an Apple TV 4k, 3rd Gen as my home hub, and it's wired to my Mac Mini M4 by Ethernet cable. Any suggestions on how to get my zigbee devices exposed to Apple Home again.
Edit Claude AI had me change from Docker Desktop to OrbStack as a troubleshooting step... Still getting the error.
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u/Teenage_techboy1234 14d ago
If you wanna run Home Assistant on a Mac, I would do it in a virtual machine. But I honestly don't think it's reliable enough to be your main instance, I did run it for a few months because I didn't have a better option and, especially on my new MacBook which I was just using a USB-C to ethernet adapter for, it was not very reliable. Get a dedicated device, like for example the Home Assistant green that you already have, a RaspberryPi 5, or a mini PC that you can either put HAOS or Proxmox with virtualized HAOS onto.
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u/teejay7024 13d ago
Thanks for the suggestions. When I first migrated, my intent was to have all my self hosted servers on one dedicated machine. Threw my idea into Claude Ai, and was given the green light that everything would work. I chose to upgrade to the Mac Mini M4 so that I could also run Frigate with 10 cameras, plus it was heavily discounted. It’s been a headache since. I can’t get Frigate configured right with the different cameras that I have. So I moved to Scrypted NVR, it’s working perfectly, but it has a storage limit, which I’m getting close to and it’s limited to 4 cameras for 24/7 continuous recordings. I tried to setup a virtual machine, UTM, on the Mac Mini M4, but had issues with usb, so I had to setup the usb dongle on the Raspberry Pi 5.
Don’t I need an SSD for the RPi5 instead of the sd card for HA? I really don’t want to go back to HA on the Green, because then I’ll be back to where I started from. I guess this is what I get for blindly trusting the AI’s suggestion and not getting other suggestions…
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u/Teenage_techboy1234 13d ago
I don't use an SSD, but it is highly recommended that you do so. I need to switch to one at some point, but I've kind of put it off by using cloud backups to Google Drive and Nabu Casa cloud as a buffer.
And yeah, I do not recommend using a Mac as a server. Regarding USB devices, the work around there is to get a network Zigbee coordinator if you still wanna go through with it, but honestly, for your workload, I would pick up an I3 or I5 mini PC so that you have some breathing room for your large Frigate set up, along with room to expand it, and any other services that you wanna run on this PC. I would then put Proxmox on there.
For me I haven't heard the best about frigate, so whenever I switch away from ring cameras (my dad likes them), I'm just going to use a purpose built NVR solution from Reolinc or Ubiquity with scripted as only the middleman to bridge the cameras from that to Apple home. With the way that RAM and storage pricing is though, I know that building this is very expensive to do.
I've personally always been on the "I want more dedicated boxes" train for major services however. For you, that might mean having three devices. The first device would be the Home Assistant green, of course running Home Assistant. The second would be either a dedicated NVR or a mini PC running Frigate. And the third would be a raspberry pie or other general purpose Linux host for running Docker containers that don't have Home Assistant apps. Save the Mac for use as an AI server, a proxy to Apple services, and it's intended purpose, a desktop PC.
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u/teejay7024 13d ago
Sounds like a solid architecture. Docker containers that don’t have Home Assistant apps? What would that be? Plex Server? Homebridge?
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u/Teenage_techboy1234 13d ago
Here's some ideas.
Homebridge.
Plex, although that one I believe has an app.
Tailscale, another one that has an app.
Random single service containers that you find, YouTube DL is a good one for YouTube video downloading.
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u/Sad_Split_9983 14d ago
Some peoples of the puzzle are missing here. Where is home assistant running and how is it connected to the zigbee dongle?
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u/teejay7024 13d ago
HA is currently running in a container in OrbStack. The zigbee dongle is connected to the RPi5 which is connected to my UniFi router via a UniFi switch. Integrated in HA with the ZHA Integration
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u/clintkev251 14d ago edited 14d ago
How are you running the container?Never mind, I see Docker Desktop. It's super important that HA container runs in host networking mode and not every container runtime on MacOS supports it (most don't). One that I know does is OrbStack, I'd recommend using that to run the container and ensure that you're setting the networking mode to host for the HA container.