Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform designed to help you control, automate, and monitor smart devices through a single, intuitive interface. With the "Ubuntu 24.04 with Home Assistant" VPS template from Hostinger, Home Assistant comes pre-installed via Docker, allowing you to quickly deploy your own automation server.
Accessing Home Assistant
Once your VPS is deployed with this template, Home Assistant will be running and accessible. To begin the setup, open a web browser and navigate to:
https://[your-vps-hostname]
Replace [your-vps-hostname] with the actual hostname of your VPS. This will take you to the Home Assistant onboarding page.
Completing initial setup
Upon first access, you’ll be prompted to create an administrator account. Enter your name, username, and a secure password to proceed. After creating the account, you can configure basic system settings such as location, time zone, and unit preferences (e.g., Celsius vs. Fahrenheit).
Once the setup is complete, you'll be taken to the Home Assistant dashboard, where you can begin customizing your environment and adding integrations.
Managing Home Assistant via Docker
Since Home Assistant runs in Docker on this VPS template, you can manage the container using standard Docker commands. For example, to view logs or restart the service:
sudo docker ps
sudo docker logs homeassistant
sudo docker restart homeassistant
Updating Home Assistant
To update Home Assistant to the latest stable version, follow these steps from your VPS terminal:
Pull the latest image:
docker pull ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable
Stop and remove the existing container:
docker compose stop homeassistant
docker compose rm homeassistant
Start a new container with the updated image:
docker compose -f /root/docker-compose.yaml up -d
This process will update your installation while preserving your configuration data stored in /root/homeassistant.
With the "Ubuntu 24.04 with Home Assistant" VPS template, you can easily deploy a self-hosted smart home automation server. The pre-configured Docker setup ensures a quick and smooth start, allowing you to begin building your smart home environment immediately. For more advanced usage, integrations, and automation examples, visit the official Home Assistant documentation.