Build Your Smart Home on Unraid with Home Assistant

Automate your lights, sensors, plugs, and cameras — all running locally on your Unraid server with Home Assistant. No cloud, no subscriptions, no company watching your house but you.

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Home Assistant is the open-source platform that turns your Unraid server into the brain of your home. Connect your devices, build automations, and control everything from one private dashboard. Things like lights that follow the sunset, a notification when the laundry's done, cameras that record locally instead of to someone else's cloud are just some of the amazing things you can do with Home Assistant and Unraid.

Because it runs on your own server, nothing depends on a manufacturer's app staying online or a subscription staying paid. Your automations keep working, your data stays in your house, and everything is accessible from any device on your network. Whether you're automating a single room or wiring up the whole house, Home Assistant on Unraid is the always-on foundation to build on.

Why Unraid for Home Assistant?

Unraid is the ideal home for Home Assistant. It runs 24/7, so your automations never stop. Docker (or a dedicated VM) makes setup easy via Community Apps, and everything lives on parity-protected storage — so a drive failure doesn't wipe out years of automations, history, and configuration.

  • Always on — your server runs 24/7, so automations, schedules, and alerts never miss a beat
  • Easy install — Home Assistant is available in Community Apps, ready in minutes
  • Parity-protected — your configuration and history survive a drive failure
  • Run it your way — as a Docker container or a full Home Assistant OS VM, your choice
  • Local and private — your home's data never leaves your network
  • Remote access — pair with Tailscale or a VPN to control your home from anywhere, safely

What You Can Do with Home Assistant

Connect a device, build an automation, and let Home Assistant run your home in the background.

Automations

Set trigger for anything: lights on at sunset, a nudge when a door's left open, turn the heating down when everyone leaves.

One Dashboard

Control every device in your home from a single clean interface, on your phone, tablet, or a wall-mounted screen.

Works with Everything

Thousands of integrations like Zigbee, Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, and more, so your gear works together regardless of brand.

Local Control

Devices respond instantly and keep working even if the internet drops, because the brain lives on your server, not in the cloud.

Server-aware

Bring your Unraid server into Home Assistant — watch array health, disk temps, and running apps, and let the house react to what the server's doing.

Local Cameras

Add camera monitoring with local recording and detection — no monthly fees, no footage leaving your home.

Learn how to set up Home Assistant on Unraid

Part 1 of the 4-part Home Assistant on Unraid is out now

Home Assistant on Unraid: Free Install + First Automation

Build Your First Smart Home for Free (Part 1)

Common Home Assistant Use Cases

Lighting

Lights that follow the sunset, dim for movie night, or shift color through the evening — set once, runs forever.

Energy & Plugs

 Put smart plugs on the things that matter, track what's drawing power, and switch off standby drains automatically.

Presence & security

Know when doors open, when someone's home, and when they're not — and let the house respond on its own.

Climate & comfort

Schedule heating and cooling around your day, react to temperature and humidity, and stop paying to condition an empty house.

Notifications & reminders

Flash a light when the laundry's done, get a nudge when something you're waiting on lands in your inbox, and never miss the thing that matters.

Media & home theater

Tie your Plex or Jellyfin server into the room — dim the lights when playback starts and bring them back up when you pause.

Get Started

Home Assistant installs easily from the Unraid Community Apps store. Open the Apps tab in your Unraid WebGUI, search for "Home Assistant," and install. Point it at a share for its configuration, connect your first device, and you're automating in minutes.

From there, add a Zigbee dongle for wireless devices, bring in smart plugs and cameras, and connect your Unraid server itself — so the house and the server watch over each other. 

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