How to upgrade from an old version of MSR?
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A.I. is pretty good! I don't normally use it tbh. Scared of the future robots gonna rule the world.
I asked:
Yes please tell me more about the general concepts of Proxmox. I do know what virtual machines are however I have used them in the past. But I have never heard of Proxmox before. I am familiar with Debian however I already have a thin client here running Debian and Multi System Reactor aka MSR. MSR is a 3rd party logic rules engine which can be used with your devices in Home Assistant. I need a new setup that allows me to run home assistant and msr on the same pc etc.
It replied but it recommends to run MSR in an LXC rather than a full VM. The whole setup sounds it would be brilliant, but for me to do it, is probably lot of time, learning and head straching lol. So it's gonna be a commitment.
Here is what it said:
Since you are already comfortable with Debian and Virtual Machines, Proxmox is going to feel like a superpower for your home lab.
What is Proxmox?
Proxmox Virtual Environment (PVE) is a Type-1 Hypervisor.
Type-2 (What you've used): Like VirtualBox on Windows. You have an OS, then an app, then the VM.
Type-1 (Proxmox): It is the OS. It sits directly on the "bare metal" hardware.
Crucially for you, Proxmox is built on top of Debian. When you install it, you are essentially installing a highly customized version of Debian with a world-class Web GUI to manage VMs and Containers.
The Strategy: Running HAOS and MSR Together
Since you want to run both Home Assistant and Multi-System Reactor (MSR) on one machine, Proxmox is the perfect "manager" to keep them isolated but interconnected.
1. Home Assistant (The VM)
You will create a Virtual Machine (VM) and install HAOS directly into it.
Why a VM? HAOS wants to "own" the hardware. In a VM, Proxmox gives it a virtualized hard drive and CPU, keeping it stable and allowing for the "Add-on Store" to work perfectly.
Ease of use: There are famous "Helper Scripts" (by tteck) that allow you to install HAOS on Proxmox with a single command.
2. Multi-System Reactor (The LXC Container)
Since MSR is a Node.js application that runs great on Linux, you don't need a full VM for it. You should use a Linux Container (LXC).
What is an LXC? It’s lighter than a VM. It shares the Proxmox (Debian) kernel but has its own file system.
The Benefit: An LXC for MSR will use almost zero idle RAM (around 100-200MB) compared to a full VM which might grab 2GB just to boot.
Why this is better than your current setup:
Snapshots: Before you update Home Assistant or change a massive rule in MSR, you click "Snapshot." If it breaks, you hit "Rollback" and you're back in 10 seconds.
Backups: Proxmox can automatically back up your entire HA setup and MSR setup to an external drive or NAS every night while you sleep.
Hardware Pass-through: If you have a Zigbee or Z-Wave USB stick, Proxmox makes it easy to "pass" that physical USB port into the Home Assistant VM.
The "Debian" Safety Net: Since the base is Debian, you can still SSH into the host and use familiar commands if you ever need to troubleshoot the hardware level.
Recommended "UK eBay PC" Allocation:
If you buy an 8th Gen i5 with 16GB RAM (as discussed):
Proxmox Host: Uses ~1GB RAM.
HAOS VM: Assign 4GB RAM (it will use ~2GB).
MSR LXC: Assign 1GB RAM (it will use ~200MB).
Leftover: You still have 10GB of RAM free to experiment with other things like Pi-Hole, Plex, or a local MQTT broker.
Would you like me to find those "Helper Scripts" for you so you can see how easy the one-command installation is? -
This video is wild and super scary, if real and why I very rarely use A.I.
I'd love to hear you guys opinions as being the expert technical guys you are.