Maximum number of KNX devices with OpenHab

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
1

Hi,

I have a client who owns 70 villas. I want to know if I can use only one instance of OpenHab with KNX devices for automating all the 70 villas or should I use one instance of OpenHab per Villa.

Each villa will have approx 20 lights, 5 A/Cs, 2 TV set, 1 Audio.

Thank you & Kind regards
Gulshan

2

You could use 1 installation of OH2 but remember… there is no user access control (yet) in OH2
So you won’t be able to segregate access on 1 deployment. Better use 1 instance per villa.

3

I would definitely go for one instance of OH per villa and maybe another instance that monitors some stuff from all the villas (so that you can automate various centralized scenarios).

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4

Thanks a lot for quick response Angelos. In that case, can I install
multiple instances of OH2 (running on distinct ports) on same
physical/virtual server ?

Thank you and Kind regards

Gulshan

5

I would go for docker containers or separate vm’s for each openHAB instance (it’s easier to manage) hosted on one/multiple physical server!
The VMs can at one point use the fail-over capabilities of multiple physical servers!

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6

Thanks for reply George. Much appreciated

7

I agree with Dim and George, one instance of OH per villa is probably the way to go for all the cited reasons.

I also agree Docker or separate VMs for each will be much easier for you to manage and maintain.

But do realize this is a very large deployment. You will want to include a lot of configuration management, maintenance, and monitoring services such as:

  • some sort of repo to store the Rules which can be checked out to each of the 70 instances of OH
  • reverse proxy to add some authentication/authorization to the UIs (e.g. should the occupants have access to the administration UIs?)
  • Nagios or the like to monitor and get alerts when one or more goes down or behaves strangely
  • if using Docker you probably want to host your own Image repo rather than depending on Dockerhub
  • if using VMs something like Chef, Puppet, or Ansible (I like Ansible) for automated building, deployment, configuration, and updating
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8

Thanks a lot for your feedback and guidance Rich.

Thank you and Kind regards