What is your preferred platform for Domoticz?

[FionnanBurke]

Hi All,
I am new to the forum and currently using a VeraLite for my zwave home automation (Dublin, Ireland).
I am now looking to move away from Vera and on to Domoticz and plan to purchase a Aoetec Z Stick next week.

My question is around the preferred OS to run Domoticz on. I have a HP Microserver here running Windows 2012 that currently just functions as a media Server.
It has relatively decent spec, Dual core CPU and 5GB RAM.
My plan is to run Domoticz on a virtual machine on this server. For me, the benefit of a VM is the snapshot functionality and will be easier to migrate the VM to new hardware in the future.

Is there any functional difference between the windows installation and the linux installs? Do different operating systems have benefits over another?

Thanks for reading, I will probably be posting a bit more as I get started with Domoticz.

Fionnan

[SweetPants]

Welcome to the forum

If you want my personal opinion, i choose Linux. I have an Intel NUC dual core Atom running Ubuntu (currently 14.04LTS) for almost two years now without any issues. I also think Linux is more flexible then windows.

[FionnanBurke]

Welcome to the forum

If you want my personal opinion, i choose Linux. I have an Intel NUC dual core Atom running Ubuntu (currently 14.04LTS) for almost two years now without any issues. I also think Linux is more flexible then windows.

Hi,
Thanks for the welcome and the reply.
I figured linux would probably be preference of most people. I'm decent with linux so it shouldn't be too much of an issue. But truthfully, I'm more of a windows guy!

When you say that linux is more flexible. Are you talking about the OS in general or Domoticz running on linux?

[StanHD]

Hi, I started out with Domoticz on a Raspberry Pi, and it was excellent. However as I struggle with Linux and have a windows eco system which is all backed up and integrated with a Windows Server, I thought I would try it on a dedicated Intel NUC. This has been working well for me for a couple of years and my system has really grown. I think that the developers do develop primarily for Linux and this is born out if you check the Wiki, but most of the features seem to work just fine under Windows with a few adjustments. Either way, Domoticz is the best, most developed and growing HA system and community you will find. Enjoy

[nayr]

If you use windows it'll be a total PITA to run scripts and 3rd party tools written in: Bash, Python, Perl, PHP, JavaScript, etc.

and there are alot of scripts out there, LUA cant do it all..

Then you wont get support for the built in linux hardware, like Dallas-1 Wire Temp sensors for example.. GPIO hardware for hardwired sensors, etc.

Linux is much better suited for this, and you dont need a powerful machine either.. Your going to have to ensure your VM starts up correctly and your going to be at the mercy of your windows server.. so when your server gives you headaches, it will take down all your services. Ive got a pair of hex core VM servers with live migration and built in redundancy, yet I run domoticz on its own dedicated physical hardware, mainly because I cant live-migrate any devices plugged in and external hardware support through a VM is flakey at best

IMHO if your familiar enough with linux your comfortable, there is no reason to run Domoticz in windows.. thats for people affraid of the word linux, and yet we still see a ton of users here with absolutely no linux experience before Domoticz, and there managing to get by somehow.

[StanHD]

I'm not afraid of Linux. That is an insulting comment that there was no need for.

[Minglarn]

Now this is a good topic! =)

Today i'm using the RPI2 to host my Domoticz server. Time to time I see how the Domoticz server gets slow and non responsive.
As Domoticz continues to grow and uses a little bit more CPU I'm considering to move to a dedicated Linux machine.
Is someone using Domoticz on a UBUNTU machine? Is there any benefits to keep the Domoticz RPI if you don't consider the power usage?

I've got a i5 with 4gig ram laying around. Installed UBUNTU on it yesterday. Should I emigrate to the UBUNTU machine?

[nayr]

@Minglarn, Domoticz supports a Master <-> Slave server setup, so if you outgrow your RPi, you can make that a slave and move to a more powerful box as your primary.. thats how I do it.. my weary little beagle-bones dont compare in performance to my CuBox but they are cheap and have tons of IO so they can be put close to where they are needed and do only whats asked.. all the advanced programing and scripting is done on the master instance.

Since these are devices intended to run 24/7/365 there is something to be said for going for efficient little linux boxes, depending on your energy costs a top of the line little arm linux server could pay for its self in a few years as opposed to running a full blown desktop/server hardware.

Check out these platforms from least powerfull to most: BeagleBones, Raspberry Pi 2, HummingBoard, CuBox, Utilite2.. and there are many more, you'll be good with anything you can but debian on.. I would focus on a Quad Core with lots of RAM and support for an eSata disk.

My CuBox also saves video for 4x 1080p cameras to a 4TB eSata drive, provides VoIP service for the house, runs other messaging/chat services as well as Domoticz and all related home automation tasks.. my average load is 5% cpu usage and 20% ram, never any wait.. having a real HDD helps alot on filesystem intensive tasks, I think that is a key to success really.. those SD cards & USB 2.0 drives are massive performance bottlenecks, when you choke em out the system becomes unbearable to use.. a solid state drive in a little arm box would be a huge improvement for large database queries

[Minglarn]

Yesterday I installed Domoticz on my Ubuntu Linux machine and what a difference!
Dmoticz is running smooth. I know it's a bit overkill to install it on this machine http://www.cnet.com/products/fujitsu-es ... -us/specs/
but i've got it for free and dont know what I should use to. Tried KODI but the RPI2 is doing a better job as the Esprimo dont have a HDMI port.
I even tested some NVR applications to install, but none of them is OK compared to my china made NVR Cetronicx box.

I'll have a look at the CuBox and see if its suits my demands better. Thanks for the info...

[nayr]

thats a nice little box, 10w @ idle is not too shabby either..

sadly most of the FOSS NVR stuff is junk, I just record 24/7 via ftp and use this really nice script to allocate storage space per-camera: https://github.com/jakejohns/py-direg
Then I share the raw videos in a read only samba share, just dig into them when needed.. thanks to Domoticz I usually have snapshots/logs to point me to the correct time.

works for me since I almost never go back and review footage, I just keep 2 weeks of constant recordings incase I notice something missing/damaged/suspicious.. I do have a cheap Chinese NVR for displaying my cameras via HDMI in realtime, but it lacks any storage.. seems to require windows to use it via web sadly.

[FionnanBurke]

Thanks all for the advice. I think for me, the best thing might be to wipe the server I have and install esxi and an ubuntu instance from there. It allows me better management of resources, I can backup the vm easily and I'm comfortable with esxi anyway as it's a big part of my job. I might even look at a purchasing another microserver in time as a fail over.
Thanks again

Sent from my SM-P605 using Tapatalk

[Derik]

CB2 as master stable as a rock...
RPiB as slave and sometime sd problems.....

[manjh]

I run Domoticz on a Win10 server in a small I5 box. Lately ran into some irritating problems and someone suggested to move toan R-Pi.
I have an idle Pi lying around here and could give it a try, but am worried about the migration.
So here's my question: I could move a backup from my Windows machine onto an SD card.
Would Domoticz running on a pi be able to restore from that backup?