Get multiple Zigbee2MQTT instances running in HA OS & Docker

Sometimes one is not enough, or even two - that's why today we will look at how you can run up to 6 Zigbee2MQTT instanced on HA OS and unlimited number of them in Docker.
Zigbee2MQTT documentation:
www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/inst...
00:00 - Intro
00:41 - Why would you want to run multiple instances
02:05 - Multiple instances in HA OS
08:27 - Docker install for multiple instances
16:05 - Final thoughts
Don't forget to give this video thumb up if you liked it, subscribe if you still haven't and I'll see you next time!
Have fun!
Bearded Tinker
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#homeassistant #zigbee2mqtt #zigbee

[@zyghom]

bloody hell I never knew we can have more than 1 zigbee2mqtt - thanks!

[@BeardedTinker]

Just be careful not to get lost in too many instances :)

[@ss-xy2im]

Was looking at installing multiple instances last week, thanks for this vid

[@BeardedTinker]

Thanks for watching

[@tomr7241]

Just wanna say thank you, your video helped me to sort something I wasted the whole day on. I didn't want to add another z2m, but it helped anyway! 👍

[@BeardedTinker]

Glad it helped! Thanks for the comment!!

[@francoiss.8433]

Thanks for this very good explaination. I'm using docker and multiple SMLIGHT SLZB-06 with Zigbee2MQTT instances : this permit to manage all the floors with only one HA instance !

[@BeardedTinker]

Nice! That's the way!

[@haonas]

been running two instances in my house for the past two years (one for each floor). I have had them on the same port and frankly never noticed anything wrong, but after seeing you insist on the the recommendation of two ports I have changed them to different ones, quick fix to avoid any headaches! I also have different channels and pan IDs additional to the base topic that you mention. Great video as always, thanks!

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you! Channels help if they are different, but you could have on same, depends on other Wifi devices near by, but pan id really needs to be unique as it can create network issues.

[@MarkAlexanderBuchanan]

Are you using docker or the regular HAOS? Also, which coordinators are you using?

[@sandphotoNL]

Exactly what I needed to get my SLZB06 set up. Now I need just one more thing: time ;-)

[@BeardedTinker]

Unfortunately, I don't have any extra time - that's commodity that is in short supply!

[@sandphotoNL]

@@BeardedTinker True, although you saved me a little bit of time with this video, so thanks!

[@MartinHiggs84]

Oh! Set this up a couple weeks ago out in home office to improve range of sensors

[@BeardedTinker]

Nice!!! It's not that hard really, just have to be careful about thing or two.

[@MartinHiggs84]

@BeardedTinker yeah the mistake I made was duplicating the topic corrected it and run like the dream since.

[@Barnez2006]

For my instance I couldn't get it to work with the instructions. My original setup did not use the topic. (Maybe becuase I use the Mosquito broker add in in HAOS not sure). Got pan ID errors. I just changed the config data path to something else and it generated unique id's and now works.

[@BeardedTinker]

That's strange... PAN ID errors are normal, that's why I've added in configuration panid: GENERATE so it would create new pan ID every time.

[@BrettVilnis]

I had problems with these steps. I create a new zigbee2mqtt folder for each instance and errors gone. Great video, thanks again!

[@jordaynerjr]

What did you put in the folder

[@jordaynerjr]

I'm currently having the same problems too

[@gismoscherer]

thx for catching up on the topic with a video...

[@BeardedTinker]

Any time!

[@gismoscherer]

Hi, for clarification, .. I just setup a 2nd coordinator in the 2nd half of a house which isn't reachable by the other SLZB-06M; I got both running, with different ports as described in your video and different name.. however is it normal that I see the paired devices from the 1st stick, in the 2nd stick zigbee2mqtt page as well? seems a bit odd to me.

[@gismoscherer]

@@BeardedTinker this guy found a way in how to change the side panel names kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHPFnWN_Yr-jq80si=Z5Wyn5DujcPz_j3l&t=568

[@sygad1]

thank you for a really clear walk through, it really helped. I've got 2 instance of Z2M running now. I do have a repititive problem though, it keeps reporting an error, “Exception while calling fromZigbee converter: Value ‘5’ is not allowed, expected one of 0,1,2}”, any ideas what is causing this?

[@sygad1]

I installed Edge as my second instance, probems went away. mmWave sensor was not liking the 2nd "/" version, but worked fine with Edge. Also, base_topic in the mqtt section of addon configuration is ignored (it was for me), this needs to be edited in the Z2M instance configuration.yaml file.

[@POPOL2999]

Hello, nice tuto! each time i try to start the 2nd instance, it make a mess in my 1st instance : almost half of entities in HA are unavailable, but works in Z2M...i have modify base_topic and the port 8485 to 8486. I have verify that i have a different pan_id and network_key in the 2 instances..............................................So I have add base_topic with a different name in the 2nd instance before start the add-on but if i look into "share/zigbee2mqtt" folder config, in configuration.yaml the base_topic doesnt appear here under "mqtt:"...strange...so i restore a previous back up and then change the config folder name to "share/zigbee2mqtt2" instead of zigbee2mqtt but same behavior...complete mess. So i save the entire folder config "share/zigbee2mqtt2" to my desktop, restore a previous backup and then copy all the files to "share/zigbee2mqtt2" after the backup without starting the add-on yet for the 2nd instance. Then i start the add-on for the 2nd instance and all work as expected. ;) Nice but a bit complicated in my case...i have now my Sonoff dongle and my UZG-01 with 2 seperate instances in HA. thanks for your work :)

[@saninnsalas]

Hi, thanks for the video! This worked as in I was able to install a second zigbee2mqtt instance in my HomeAssistant OS BUT, as soon as I start the second instance for the first time all my helper light entites, mapped from zigbee devices just disappeared. The original ones still exist, but the light.my_mapped_switch entities disappered!

[@jeibar]

Mate you’re genius , thanks for the video . I just have a question , what about the zigbee channel? I currently have ZHA with channel 15 and Z2m on channel 25 , I’d love to add a second instance of Z2m at the back of the house , which channel should I use ? I would be using an Ethernet coordinator

[@BeardedTinker]

You could use same channels. Unless you have really a lot of devices already on that channel. But it also depends if there are WiFi networks and on what channels they are. So, 15 or 25 would be OK for anything up to 150 devices on channel. If you have more, I would change them. For testing, I used same channel on all 6 devices (actually I had 8 networks on same channel).

[@jeibar]

@@BeardedTinker awesome mate , thanks for the info . is there anyway to migrate z2m from sonoff dongle E to SLZB 06 without having to repair everything ? I am getting the new coordinators in couple of days and I want to migrate ZHA and Z2m to ethernet coordinators. any guide I could follow ? thanks heaps bud

[@paullacatus8975]

I was thinking to install Z2M on a separate docker container, stand-alone, not integrated in HA and using the same MQTT broker. And subscribing HA to the topic from the other Z2M . I don’t know exactly how to subscribe HA to the other topic but I think is possible.

[@BeardedTinker]

Is there specific reason for different topic? They can both use same topic. (just to make sure, we are talking about "homeassistant" topic?)

[@Luisp_1024]

Can you have ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT connecting to the same devices to create redundancy and avoid failures? Or can the devices only map to one coordinator?

[@BeardedTinker]

While it MAY work, that's not really something you should do. Those services require exclusive access to the device and there can be a lot of issues with network if both use the same device. I know some did it, but that's a bad idea.

[@algailimoh]

thanks for the vedio...but If i want to add more than one zigbee2mqtt addons, should i must have usb cordinator connected to usb port in my homeassiatant,,because ihave two POE cordenators when i active tow zigbee2mqtt addons, part of my devices loses conection with mqtt broker

[@BeardedTinker]

You can have multiple PoE/external coordinators. Jus make sure that each of them is also using separate folder for configuration files too.

[@estebangarcia6092]

Thanks for the video, very interesting. I have 2 SLZB06 working, one as a coordinator and the other as a router, which as I understand it acts as a repeater, have you tried configuring them that way?

[@BeardedTinker]

Yes, but reverted back to coordinator. I have around 40 routers on my network already so just wanted to see if it works

[@estebangarcia6092]

@@BeardedTinker If you configure it in router mode, will you also need another zigbee instance? Or it won't be necessary, do you know?

[@BeardedTinker]

No, router is connected as normal device to existing coordinator and doesn't require additional instances.

[@fmacmahon]

I tried setting up a similar configuration. One instance is connected directly via USB to the HA machine and the other via Ethernet. The instance connected via Ethernet had its base topic changed, as well as its port to 8546. However, upon activation, the same devices appear as in the USB instance, and everything starts going offline. I'm still unclear on what needs to be done. Can the same MQTT server be used for both?

[@BeardedTinker]

Yes, same MQTT can be used. In Zigbee2MQTT settings, change first line - data_path: default is /config/zigbee2mqtt, for second one, just use for example /config/zigbee2mqtt2

[@fmacmahon]

@@BeardedTinker thanks!

[@sansibarius69]

Can I bascially use/mix any type of Zigbee LAN adapters? And also Zigbee USB adapters?

[@BeardedTinker]

Sure... No issue with that.

[@jordaynerjr]

Once I start up one instance the other incense stopped working I'm using the Sonoff as my first coordinator it's plugged into the home system of course And the SLZB-06 as my second both running mqtt different bass topics and ports

[@jordaynerjr]

And no matter which instance I click permit join from the SLZB-06 go's in to paring mode

[@BeardedTinker]

Did you create separate folder for configuration files too? If you did yo u need to change folder name in Zigbee2MQTT too. My guess is that this is the issue.

[@januszwojciechowski2292]

I wanted to make sure that I cannot connect two coordinators to one Zigbee2Mqtt (especially if I need to extend the range)?

[@BeardedTinker]

No, only one coordinator is supported. For extending the range, you can use routers and they are pretty efficient in that.

[@januszwojciechowski2292]

@@BeardedTinker I currently have a ZigStar LilyZig gateway, which is unfortunately end of live, so I have to replace it with something else soon. I thought that after connecting the second coordinator, I would simply tell the device to switch to it. Now I don't really know how to safely migrate devices to the new coordinator. Maybe you could show it, especially since you have several coordinators in the LAN version, which I am very interested in. Thanks

[@victorma2307]

Great video, but I tried to follow the instructions and my second instance still publishes the messages into the standard zigbee2mqtt topic (completely messing up my network) instead of using the topic defined under base_topic in the addon settings. I am a bit desperate as I have changed the settings a million times and nothing works, the topic is always zigbee2mqtt, has anyone experienced this issue?

[@ponchs12]

I had the same problem, If you look under settings / MQTT in the in the zigbee2mqtt ui it still says zigbee2mqtt I chaned it in there and it didn't stay, went back to the config file deleted zigbee2mqtt1 re-added zigbee2mqtt1 hit save and it worked, took me several tries to get it to work. the ui setting must match your config name.

[@davidzendzian3056]

Slick idea

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you!

[@adfjasjhf]

Wouldn't it be possible to change the Z2M name in the sidebar by changing the configuration.yaml in the zigbee2mqtt folder? log_syslog: app_name: Zigbee2MQTT

[@BeardedTinker]

Isn't that for just changing the name inside logs? I haven't found way to change name in side bar so far, but maybe someone will figure it out.

[@adfjasjhf]

@@BeardedTinker i have not tried but it seems like that might be it.

[@BeardedTinker]

log_syslog is for controlling logging, not frontend. But, if it works, great!!

[@SciBee]

​@@BeardedTinkerHad the same problem with duplicate names in the sidebar and found a solution. Install the HACS Ingress component. Then add to HA configuration.yaml: ingress: zigbee2mqtt1: work_mode: hassio title: Z2M first floor icon: mdi:zigbee url: 45678ghh_zigbee2mqtt (select the URL you see when hoovering the original link) zigbee2mqtt2: ... Disable "Show in sidebar" in all zigbee2mqtt instance configurations. I also suggest to use different MQTT configuration files for the different instances. Great video again!

[@TheRealAnthony_real]

interesting .. z2m in docker sounds more apealing as you can control the z2m versions installed unlike HA .. I`ll give this a go ... as I just hate when after an update everything goes south and I can`t revert back

[@BeardedTinker]

It's much easier - but haven't had really any issues with updates in last 2-3 years minimum.

[@sandphotoNL]

I was wondering if you had tried changing "data_path" at the top of zigbee2mqtt configuration for the second coordinator. Could that have been the cause of your problems instead of base_topic? Update: never mind... I had "availability" turned on in Z2M for adapter 1 (Conbee II) and when I started Z2M for adapter 2 (SLZB-06) I saw everything on the 1st adapter turn to unavailable when I had the same base_topic for both. Changing to different base_topics fixed that.

[@BeardedTinker]

Correct. Also yes, you can change data_path. It is actually preferred to have different paths for each coordinator.

[@KaidoKurrikoff]

What’s the advantage of 2 separate instances, compared to just extending the range with coordinators (such as lightbulbs)?

[@BeardedTinker]

Lights are routers. Routers are good to extend network. But some can't extend it with routers and require additional coordinators to start new network. Both are OK to use. Also, if you reach maximum number of devices per network (usually around 100 directly connected devices), you need new coordinator and as such new Z2M instance.

[@januszwojciechowski2292]

@@BeardedTinker Can devices connected to one instance use those of the other as routers?

[@MarkAlexanderBuchanan]

This appeared to work for me. Each of my two instances of Z2M were able to pair with devices but when I go to Settings-Devices & Services - MQTT all I see is the two zigbee2mqtt bridges (one for each coordinator). I have spent all weekend trying to solve it and even wiped my entire homeassistant set up and started fresh but get the same problem. I am using SMLight SLZB-06M coordinators. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

[@BeardedTinker]

Did you create also separate path or you only have one zigbee2mqtt folder? You can check written guide for SLZB06M for multiple instances here: smlight.tech/manual/slzb-06/guide/multiple-adapters-setup/

[@MarkAlexanderBuchanan]

@@BeardedTinker I created separate paths. I will check the written guide. Thanks

[@MarkAlexanderBuchanan]

@@BeardedTinker As far as I can tell, I have set up everything right. I can see the connected devices in z2m but mqtt is just not getting the information. So frustrating

[@BeardedTinker]

Nothing pops on my mind currently.

[@MarkAlexanderBuchanan]

Just in case it is helpful for others who watch this video. I have now been able to get two instances of z2m working by attaching my old Sonoff USB coordinator instead of one of the ZLSB-06M's. I now notice that you have one USB coordinator and one Ethernet coordinator in your video so maybe the problem is that z2m cannot handle multiple ethernet coordinators?

[@mohadeskhrabh5257]

I bought 2 devices and followed the same steps mentioned in the video, but I found that the devices that were working stopped working completely, even though I changed the port number and topic

[@BeardedTinker]

Pm second instance of Z2M - change also folder name for second instance. And create that folder, for example, add zigbee2mqtt2 folder in configuration and also create that folder. Then try to restart both instances and try again

[@BeardedTinker]

Pm second instance of Z2M - change also folder name for second instance. And create that folder, for example, add zigbee2mqtt2 folder in configuration and also create that folder. Then try to restart both instances and try again

[@timwaggvideo]

Has anyone else had issues with port blocking. I use Cloud flare for remote access and it doesn't let traffic through to any other port other than the default. My first instance works fine, but the other doesn't. Tried loads of different ports, all the same issue.

[@BeardedTinker]

This doesn't help much - you should be some kind of an error, what is it?

[@timwaggvideo]

​@@BeardedTinker oddly, it now works, updated and reinstalled instance

[@daveforrester61]

I have tried this so many times with the SLZB-06 PoE coordinator, but every time I try to start Z2M I get errors and it doesn't start. The most likely cause being "another network with the same PanID or ExtendedPanId". Of course I have another network or I wouldn't be trying to install multiple instances. Why won't it just work like it does in every guide I have watched? 😠

[@BeardedTinker]

You need to "reset" pan ID on new device. I think you should replace whatever is in pan id with "GENERATE" and it will create new ID for that network.

[@BeardedTinker]

Yes, check here: www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/configuration/zigbee-network.html#network-config

[@buntic131072]

Meni nikako nece da proradi, sve sam namistio kako si rekao u Videu, moja dva druga zigbee2mqtt nece da startaju.Mozes li mi pomoci?

[@buntic131072]

Uspio sam! Hvala ti!

[@BeardedTinker]

Pripazi samo da li u svim konfiguracijama za Z2M (u yaml fajli) imaš drugačiji path/putanju do njih. Treba odgovarati imenu foldera gdje se nalaze. Z2M neka zna stvarati probleme s tim i ne snimi ih.

[@slightbleeding]

I followed your guide and all is starting very well. BUT - now i have under MQTT instead 92 devices only the five devices from the new instance...I've two seperate config folders, all is as describe... What is the problem? (Normal installation via HA, without Docker). When i uninstall the second instance my other devices comes back....

[@jordaynerjr]

Did you fine a fix?

[@slightbleeding]

@@jordaynerjr Not really. I don't use it anymore. Now i make a chain of power plugs to get the signal in the basement... The support from this ukrain guys here a very bad. No answers via mail or something. And i think, thats all fake. I have a very simple standard installation of Home Assistant and it don't work. And at the end i have to reinstall all my 92 zigbee devices🤮

[@jordaynerjr]

@@slightbleeding did you not have a backup to restore from I've been playing around with it and I've been able to get it working

[@slightbleeding]

@@jordaynerjr NOW i have a backup :) Yeah, i've tryd also some things and it works of course. But MQTT shows after it only 9 devices. I did'nt see the devices from the first instance in MQTT - it is really strange. I can not do so much wrong..

[@jameshendry3571]

It's a pity you can't spin up multiple instances on the one coordinator. I unfortunately have 40+ devices on default channel 11 which needs migrating to chjannel 24 so that I'm getting a more stable Zigbee environment away from wireless ch 1,6,11. As you know with Zigbee devices some devices are incredibly easy to resetbut others like GLEDOPTO lights where you're trying a very specific on/off routine with 4 lights on a single power source are more challenging. Thanks for the top though. I think I'm going to buy another coordinator for my migration so that I can be in control.

[@BeardedTinker]

Adding one device to multiple instances could result in many issues. All those applications require exclusive access to device. Some say that they run it like that, but that's really not intended to work that way. Migrating can be a big pain, I know. Currently at around 70 devices myself and not looking forward to migration :)

[@jameshendry3571]

@@BeardedTinker I think Z2MQTT should come out of the box on CH24 or the like. Everyone goes down the rabbit hole, configures a bunch of Z2MQTT devices (some far easier than others) then works out that they can get better coexistence by changing the default Z2MQTT channel because they've got a bunch of wifi devices on the non-overlapping 2.4 channels.

[@PauloAbreu]

Removing the s from https and adding / at the end of the URL seem like an unreliable hack that could stop working at any new release. I honestly don’t trust that approach. On the other hand, running in Docker with separate containers is a solid method (been doing that for a long time).

[@BeardedTinker]

I said it's hack, you can still use https for up to 3 instances,or just use only one instance - 99% of people will never need more than one. And even some using 2 instances could probably get rid of second one by using more routers on the network. Also people using HA OS have no (easy) way to use Docker on host, so that's also only way for them.

[@adifoto6362]

Thanks for that, although i don.t need more coordinators at the moment who knows what the future will hold. Thanks

[@BeardedTinker]

Not a lot of people will need this, but it's nice to know that there is a way to do it.

[@adifoto6362]

@@BeardedTinker That's true, never know when you may need to expand. This is a nice option.

[@zyghom]

11:15: "I want to UNABLE front end" - really? that will NEVER change, right? ;-)

[@BeardedTinker]

😉😇