Smart-home foundation
Home Assistant on reused hardware
- Contribution
- Personal lab · virtualization and service setup
- Status
- Running foundation
- Built with
- Home Assistant · VirtualBox · macOS · Virtualization · Headless services
I reused an older Intel Mac mini to host a Home Assistant virtual machine, keeping the host and guest separate. The guest runs with two virtual CPUs and 2 GiB of memory, leaving room on the Mac for the host itself.
The VM was running when checked on 30 October 2026, and the setup includes a startup service. It is still a foundation: I haven’t verified the device integrations, Apple Home bridge, or recovery after a full host restart.
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