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Home Assistant — Infrastructure Monitoring Plan

Date: 2026-02-24 Context: Proxmox host (oga), Docker VM (jara), NAS — need visibility into CPU, RAM, disk, temperatures from Home Assistant.

Options Compared

Option What It Monitors RAM Cost New Containers Setup Effort

| HA System Monitor | Docker VM only (CPU, RAM, disk, network) | 0 | 0 | Low (built-in) | | Proxmox VE HACS | Proxmox host + all VMs (CPU, RAM, disk, uptime, status) | 0 | 0 | Low (API token + HACS) | | Glances | Any host (CPU, RAM, disk, network, temps, per-process) | ~70MB each | 1 per host | Medium | | Netdata | Deep metrics, auto-dashboards | 150-300MB each | 1 per host | Medium | | Prometheus + Grafana | Everything, custom dashboards | 500MB+ | 3+ | High | | MQTT scripts | Custom metrics (temps, SMART) | ~0 | 0 | Medium (scripting) |

Tier 1 — Immediate (zero new containers)

1a. HA System Monitor (built-in)

  • What: CPU usage, memory usage, disk usage, network throughput, last boot, process counts
  • Scope: Docker VM only (where HA runs)
  • Setup: Settings → Integrations → Add → System Monitor
  • Entities created: sensor.processor_use, sensor.memory_use_percent, sensor.disk_use_percent_*, etc.
  • No install needed — built into HA core

1b. Proxmox VE (HACS integration)

  • What: Proxmox host metrics + per-VM status (CPU, RAM, disk, uptime, running/stopped)
  • Scope: MiniPC (oga) host, OPNsense VM, Docker VM
  • Setup:
  • Create API token in Proxmox web UI (Datacenter → Permissions → API Tokens)
  • Install via HACS → Integrations → Search "Proxmox VE"
  • Configure: Proxmox IP (100.78.12.241), port 8006, API token
  • Entities created: sensor.oga_cpu_used, sensor.oga_memory_used, binary_sensor.docker_running, etc.
  • Zero agents — polls Proxmox API directly from HA

Tier 2 — Short-term (lightweight agent on NAS)

2a. Glances on NAS

The NAS isn't a Proxmox VM, so it needs its own monitoring agent. Glances is lightweight (~70MB RAM) and HA has a built-in integration.

# Add to NAS compose (docker/fixed/nas/)
glances:
  image: nicolargo/glances:latest-full
  container_name: glances
  restart: unless-stopped
  pid: host
  volumes:
    - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
  environment:
    - GLANCES_OPT=-w
  ports:
    - "61208:61208"
  • HA integration: Settings → Integrations → Add → Glances → host 100.82.77.97, port 61208
  • Entities: CPU, RAM, disk (per mount), network I/O, temperatures, container stats

2b. Glances on Docker VM (optional)

System Monitor covers most Docker VM metrics, but Glances adds per-container stats and temperatures. Only add if System Monitor isn't enough.

Tier 3 — Optional (specific hardware metrics)

3a. MQTT scripts on Proxmox host

Cron job that publishes hardware-specific data to MQTT:

  • CPU package temperature (sensors command)
  • SMART disk health (smartctl)
  • GPU/iGPU stats (if passthrough configured)
# Example cron script (runs every 60s)
#!/bin/bash
TEMP=$(sensors -u | grep temp1_input | head -1 | awk '{print $2}')
mosquitto_pub -h 100.68.63.168 -t "homelab/proxmox/cpu_temp" -m "$TEMP" \
  -u mqtt_user -P mqtt_pass

HA picks these up via MQTT sensor config. Useful for temperatures that Proxmox API doesn't expose.

Implementation Order

Phase Action Can Do Remotely? Status

| Now | System Monitor integration (browser) | Yes | Done | | Now | Proxmox VE HACS integration (browser + Proxmox web UI) | Yes | Done | | Later | Glances on NAS (SSH + compose) | Yes | Done | | Optional | MQTT scripts on Proxmox (SSH) | Yes | Pending | | Optional | Glances on Docker VM | Yes | Pending |

Dashboard Integration

Once sensors are available, add to the Home Overview Dashboard:

Card Data Source Section

| Gauge cards | System Monitor (CPU, RAM, disk %) | Infrastructure Status | | Entity cards | Proxmox VE (VM status, uptime) | Infrastructure Status | | Mini-graph-card | Glances (NAS disk, network trends) | Infrastructure Status | | Conditional card | Any sensor above threshold | Alerts |

Prerequisites

  • [x] HACS installed on Home Assistant
  • [x] System Monitor integration added
  • [x] Proxmox API token created (Proxmox web UI)
  • [x] Proxmox VE HACS integration installed and configured
  • [x] Glances container deployed on NAS
  • [x] Glances HA integration configured

Status (2026-03-10): All tiers (1-2) complete. Tier 3 (MQTT scripts) remains optional. VictoriaMetrics + Grafana (Papa) also deployed separately for historical metrics.