Home Assistant VM on Kubevirt

1. Introduction: What is Home Assistant?

Home Assistant is a powerful, open-source home automation platform that puts local control and privacy first. It can be run on various devices, from single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi to virtual machines and containers. It’s a great tool for anyone looking to automate their home without relying on big tech companies, giving you complete control over your smart devices.

2. Installation Methods

Home Assistant offers a few different ways to get started, but two of the most common are:

• Home Assistant Operating System (HaOS): This is the recommended and most popular installation method. HaOS is a lightweight, embedded operating system designed specifically to run Home Assistant and its ecosystem. It’s easy to install on a dedicated device like a Home Assistant Green, a Raspberry Pi, or a virtual machine. This method gives you access to the full Home Assistant experience, including the convenience of add-ons, which are pre-packaged applications that extend its functionality.

• Home Assistant Container: This method is for more advanced users who want to run Home Assistant within a container environment (like Docker or Podman). You’re responsible for managing the underlying operating system and the container yourself. While this offers flexibility, it comes with a trade-off: you don’t get access to the official add-ons.

3. HaOS on KubeVirt: The Best of Both Worlds

If you’re already running a Kubernetes homelab and prefer the flexibility of containerized applications but still want the convenience and features of the full HaOS experience, KubeVirt is the perfect solution. KubeVirt is a Kubernetes add-on that lets you run traditional virtual machines (VMs) alongside your container workloads. This means you can run the full HaOS as a VM right inside your Kubernetes cluster, giving you a powerful, unified platform for both your containers and your home automation.

4. Install KubeVirt and CDI

The first step is to get KubeVirt and its dependencies up and running in your cluster. We will also install the Containerized Data Importer (CDI), which is essential for importing the virtual machine disk image into Kubernetes.

Install Kubevirt & CDI

# Install KuberVirt
export KUBEVIRT_VERSION=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/kubevirt/kubevirt/releases/latest | jq -r .tag_name)
echo $KUBEVIRT_VERSION
kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/releases/download/$KUBEVIRT_VERSION/kubevirt-operator.yaml
kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/releases/download/$KUBEVIRT_VERSION/kubevirt-cr.yaml
kubectl get pods -n kubevirt

# Install Containerized Data Importer (CDI)
export CDI_VERSION=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/kubevirt/containerized-data-importer/releases/latest | jq -r .tag_name)
echo $CDI_VERSION
kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubevirt/containerized-data-importer/releases/download/$CDI_VERSION/cdi-operator.yaml
kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubevirt/containerized-data-importer/releases/download/$CDI_VERSION/cdi-cr.yaml
kubectl get pods -n cdi

# kubectl -n cdi port-forward svc/cdi-uploadproxy 8443:443

In case you are interested. Here are the official containerdisk images for various OS

5. Download the HaOS image

# Download the HaOS qcow2 image
wget https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/16.1/haos_ova-16.1.qcow2.xz
# unzip
xz -dk haos_ova-16.1.qcow2.xz

6. Convert the image

Convert the image into a foramt that is understood by Kubevirt

sudo dnf install podman libguestfs-tools guestfs-tools -y

# machine-id gave error
# virt-sysprep -a haos_ova-16.1.qcow2 --operations machine-id,bash-history,logfiles,tmp-files,net-hostname,net-hwaddr  

Image_name=haos_ova-16.1.qcow2

# Make Golden Image by removing unique identifiers and temporary files from the image.
virt-sysprep -a $Image_name --operations bash-history,logfiles,tmp-files,net-hostname,net-hwaddr  

# Conpress image
qemu-img convert -c -O qcow2 $Image_name "$Image_name-containerimage.qcow2"

7. Build the image and push to your repo

# Create your Containerfile
tee Containerfile > /dev/null <<EOL
FROM kubevirt/container-disk-v1alpha
ADD $Image_name-containerimage.qcow2 /disk/
EOL

# Login to your repo

podman login quay.io -u arslankhanali -p <>

# Make sure `homeassistant` repo exists and it is public
# Buld the image
podman build -t quay.io/arslankhanali/homeassistant:v1 .

# Push the image
podman push quay.io/arslankhanali/homeassistant:v1

8. Deploy the VM on Kubevirt

I will deploy in the namespace vm

kubectl create ns vm
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=vm

cat << EOF | oc apply -f-
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1
kind: VirtualMachineInstance
metadata:
  name: haos
  namespace: vm # <-- Change as per need
spec:
  domain:
    resources:
      requests:
        memory: 2048Mi
        cpu: 1
      limits:
        memory: 4096Mi
        cpu: 2
    devices:
      disks:
      - name: containerdisk
        disk:
          bus: virtio
      rng: {}
    firmware:
      bootloader:
        efi:
          secureBoot: false   # ✅ disable SecureBoot to avoid SMM requirement
  terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 0
  volumes:
  - name: containerdisk
    containerDisk:
      image: quay.io/arslankhanali/homeassistant:v1 # <-- Change as per need
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: haos
  namespace: vm
spec:
  type: NodePort
  selector:
    vmi: haos
  ports:
  - name: haos-ui
    port: 8123
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 8123
    nodePort: 30003 # <-- Change as per need - Will be random it not set
EOF

9. Console and port forward

virtctl console haos

# Password is ususlly set in cloud init inside vmi yaml

10. Console and port forward

virtctl port-forward vmi/haos 8123:8123

curl -kI http://localhost:8123/onboarding.html

curl -kI http://192.168.50.200:30003

Delete

oc delete -f vm-haos.yaml

oc delete vmi haos
oc delete svc haos

References:

• https://github.com/ormergi/vm-image-builder/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file