Disadvantages to Running other tasks on OpenHab platform

openHAB 3.1.0.M4 running on a Pi 4

Curious if there are any development issues, other than memory and performance, that might be a disadvantage to running other tasks on the same Pi as OpenHab … Obviously there are memory and performance implications, but here I am focused on system issues as new modules are added and the system is upgraded etc.

Are there obvious things that would simply make it better to run other tasks on a separate Pi? That is what I am doing now (I have Pis to spare) … but just curious if there is any inherent issues with the way OpenHabian system is maintained? Like, the need to keep some libraries at older levels etc. etc.

Thanks!

I don’t think that OH fixes the versions of any libraries or programs in the base OS. Where I can imagine you might have issues:

  • networking port conflicts
  • resources (as you already mentioned)
  • multiple versions of Java might cause some configuration issues to make sure the right Java is used by the right service.
  • it’s harder to support here on the forum as you’ll be running a non-standard configuration; it’s hard to tell the difference between something you’ve done wrong or a legitimate bug when deviating from the standard.

Beyond those basic statements the true answer is going to differ on a case by case basis,.

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You should be fine. I don’t run OpenHabian but have many similar components related to OpenHab. On that Pi 3, I also run PiHole. One general concern is that the more you put on the same hardware, the more it hurts when the hardware fails. In my case, I have a secondary PiHole instance running on a separate Pi 4 machine.

Another thing I noticed is that OH 3 seems to consume more memory on OH 2; less of a problem with your Pi 4, but it will reduce what you can run in parallel.

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Thanks Rich - that last point is one I didn’t consider and probably is worth heeding :slight_smile: … I think I’ll leave the PI alone and run my other stuff elsewhere. Thanks for the thoughtful response.

Any extra software comes with an extra risk.
I’ve seen a lot of foreseeable but also unlikely things go wrong in 20+ yrs of designing and operating Linux server farms for mission critical computing i.e. with telcos.
Any of the non-OH software can have a mem leak, fill the disk, overload the CPU.
You (admin) may accidently break the system - the more often you work on it the more likely you make mistakes. 40% of outages are due to human error, and another 40% due to software, just 20% hardware.

Point is, saving 50 bucks for another Pi isn’t worth any risk to your home automation. My 2ct, YMMV.

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