Zigbee2MQTT, External Broker and configuration

Configuration
1

Hello everyone,

Well, I’m trying to test Gladys with as many devices as possible without breaking my existing Home Assistant (HA) setup and it’s not easy.

Several questions :

  1. Does the Zigbee2MQTT installation create a mosquitto folder with a new mosquitto.conf file and its values including port 1884? Why not connect directly to the existing container?
  2. When installing Z2MQTT (locally) and Mosquitto externally, does it still install a local Mosquitto?
  3. It’s impossible to modify Z2MQTT’s configuration.yaml without crashing the service. I just want to manually link Z2MQTT to the external broker. Not possible?
  4. There is no function to cleanly remove the Mosquitto and Zigbee2MQTT integrations (and probably others), because actions via the Docker CLI are not enough; I have to perform a full restart of the Gladys container (stop, delete the Docker containers and folders) and thus restart to the default configuration.

Are you experiencing the same issues? I know this is more for tinkerers, or maybe I’m not using best practices?

Thanks in advance

2

The goal of this integration in its current operation is to make the very existence of Zigbee2mqtt completely forgotten.

For the user, it’s just an integration that allows them to connect their Zigbee devices.

The « technical » operation must be totally invisible, and the integration must be stable for years, without interruption.

By totally separating the « Zigbee » behavior from the MQTT integration, we properly isolate the Zigbee integration, and if the user fiddles with the MQTT integration (adding a new broker, changing the MQTT password, etc…), it doesn’t break the Zigbee integration which runs on its own.

I understand that coming from HA this may seem strange to you, but on the Gladys side it’s a totally different philosophy: we start from the user, not from the technology.

Mmm no, not possible, because you would have 2 Zigbee2mqtt… Gladys’s and HA’s, that cannot work.

What you want is for Gladys to talk to the Zigbee2mqtt broker of HA, and that is not possible at the moment.

If you disable the integration in the interface, normally it cleans the containers properly.

Screenshot 2024-04-04 at 09.00.38
Screenshot 2024-04-04 at 09.00.382680×1512 331 KB

Indeed if you touch the CLI, Gladys thinks the containers have crashed and therefore restarts them at the next startup.

I think you are the first in the community to test all these behaviors, because what you’re trying to do is very unique :smiley:

Nobody does CLI/file tinkering here, Gladys’s ambition is really to offer a product where everything is done in the UI and everything works without having to worry.

To do what you want, I see 3 options:

  1. Launch the Zigbee2mqtt integration in Gladys, and import your entire HA config into Gladys’s Zigbee2mqtt. This would mean completely disconnecting your Z2M from HA, and plugging your dongle into Gladys.
  2. Wait for this development to be developed ( Pouvoir utiliser un Zigbee2mqtt externe dans Gladys ), unfortunately I can’t guarantee a date, it’s a feature that ultimately has few requests and I’m personally focused on training at the moment :slight_smile:
  3. Test the development from 2) in its current state. As I said in another thread, the development has already been started (Cf PR Github) then paused because the dev had a child and is less available :smiley: Nevertheless, I tested the current development and it seems to me that it already worked (the UI is actually a work in progress though, and not everything works completely…)

If you’re interested in testing, I restarted this morning a build of this development on the Docker tag:

gladysassistant/gladys:z2m-setup-wizard

:warning::warning::warning: I guarantee nothing, do not run this development on your prod :warning::warning::warning:

I know all this may seem frustrating, it’s frustrating for me too to see you struggle because for all the other Gladys users, using Z2M is one click and it works great ^^

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3

Hi @pierre-gilles and thanks for your reply.

I understand Gladys’ guideline and that’s exactly what motivates me to test it even though my system is already running correctly. I really want to write about Gladys because a single source isn’t enough for Google to rank Gladys at the top, however high-quality it may be.

If I have to break all my home automation, of course I won’t go any further. So, my site isn’t essential in the home automation field (people first need to have heard about it), but if I’m asking myself this and having that thought, I think others are too.

Among your 2024 objectives is to multiply the number of instances tenfold.

If no one hears about Gladys, it’s not going to be easy.

If some people, already using a more or less outdated solution, hear about Gladys but can’t test it without breaking everything, it will surely not be their choice.

Back to the point, I’ll try to see about putting everything on Gladys and see if HA (Home Assistant) can see them by connecting to port 1884 (and not 1883). I already tried and it didn’t work.

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