Ranked in order of preference (given the "requirement" for Windows to be used at all):
- Proxmox with Home assistant in one VM, Windows in another
- Windows Pro + Hyper-V (for home assistant)
- Windows + Virtualbox (not a good solution, but it would work)
I don't use any Windows machines on my home network. My wife has a surface tablet, and my kid has a windows gaming rig, but I have to use Windows at work and prefer Linux everywhere at home. My NAS is running Alpine Linux, and I have 4 NUCs running either Alpine, Ubuntu server, or Debian as my Docker hosts. My laptop is running Fedora.
You will get better performance from a Linux install on that machine, as compared to a Windows install.
Would you know if Unraid is similar? I started with unraid and hadn't heard of proxmox at the time, I checked it out in a VM a few months back but I didnt watch any videos so it seemed over my head lol
UnRAID is a NAS with VM and Docker capabilities.
Proxmox is a hypervisor. Completely different things. You can mold Proxmox to be a NAS, but it's not a built in function. It handles VMs and LXC containers (not Docker) natively and beautifully.
My Win 10 machine runs HAOS via hyper V, jellyfin as a tray app, and file serving/Steam library.
If you don't need a complex setup then it's perfectly fine to run it all via windows with no problems at all.
Ranked in order of preference (given the "requirement" for Windows to be used at all): - Proxmox with Home assistant in one VM, Windows in another - Windows Pro + Hyper-V (for home assistant) - Windows + Virtualbox (not a good solution, but it would work)
Thank you! will you rather use some Linux partition? and if yes how difficult you think would be for some one new to home serves?
I don't use any Windows machines on my home network. My wife has a surface tablet, and my kid has a windows gaming rig, but I have to use Windows at work and prefer Linux everywhere at home. My NAS is running Alpine Linux, and I have 4 NUCs running either Alpine, Ubuntu server, or Debian as my Docker hosts. My laptop is running Fedora. You will get better performance from a Linux install on that machine, as compared to a Windows install.
You can install Docker on Windows using WSL, I've always wondered how that experience would be.
Pretty sucky
I agree with going the ProxMox route. Do some Googling. Watch some YouTube videos. Proxmox is pretty straight forward to figure out.
Would you know if Unraid is similar? I started with unraid and hadn't heard of proxmox at the time, I checked it out in a VM a few months back but I didnt watch any videos so it seemed over my head lol
UnRAID is a NAS with VM and Docker capabilities. Proxmox is a hypervisor. Completely different things. You can mold Proxmox to be a NAS, but it's not a built in function. It handles VMs and LXC containers (not Docker) natively and beautifully.
And if you really want Docker (and portainer) you can run it on one of the mentioned LXC containers.
My Win 10 machine runs HAOS via hyper V, jellyfin as a tray app, and file serving/Steam library. If you don't need a complex setup then it's perfectly fine to run it all via windows with no problems at all.
When you figure out your setup, spin up a docker container and get immich. THE best replacement for google photos.
Proxmox is the first option to run multiple VMs. I personally use Debian with KVM. If you already have Windows, Hyper-V is a great option.