Home Assistant Setup¶

This guide explains how to connect Strom controller telemetry and controls to Home Assistant over MQTT.

What You Get Automatically¶

For each adopted UPS, the controller publishes Home Assistant discovery entities that include:

sensors: battery charge, UPS load, battery runtime, input voltage, and UPS status
binary sensors: on battery, low battery, and online connectivity
button entities for supported instant commands exposed by the node

Entities are grouped under stable per-node devices so multiple UPSes on one node stay organized.

Prerequisites¶

a running MQTT broker reachable by the controller
a running Strom controller with adopted nodes
Home Assistant with MQTT integration enabled

Configure The Controller MQTT Bridge¶

Start the controller with MQTT options:

strom-controller \
  --mqtt-broker mqtt://mqtt.local:1883 \
  --mqtt-username homeassistant \
  --mqtt-password '<broker-password>' \
  --mqtt-discovery-prefix homeassistant \
  --mqtt-state-prefix strom

Notes:

--mqtt-broker is required to enable publishing.
--mqtt-discovery-prefix defaults to homeassistant.
--mqtt-state-prefix defaults to strom.
Published discovery and state messages are retained.
The controller publishes availability using MQTT Last Will and Testament (LWT).

Configure Aggregate NUT Listener (Optional)¶

If you also want native NUT client compatibility from the controller endpoint:

Open the controller Settings page.
Enable Aggregate NUT listener.
Set listen address (default :3493) and save.

You can disable it from the same page at any time without restarting the controller.

Home Assistant MQTT Integration¶

In Home Assistant, open Settings -> Devices and Services.
Add MQTT integration if it is not already configured.
Confirm Home Assistant can connect to the same broker used by Strom.
Wait for discovery. New Strom devices and entities should appear automatically.

Topic Model (Reference)¶

State and availability topics are published under the configured state prefix:

strom/controller/availability
strom/nodes/<node-id>/availability
strom/nodes/<node-id>/ups/<ups-name>/state
strom/nodes/<node-id>/ups/<ups-name>/command

Discovery topics are published under the configured discovery prefix, for example:

homeassistant/sensor/.../config
homeassistant/binary_sensor/.../config
homeassistant/button/.../config

Command Buttons¶

Home Assistant button entities publish the command payload to each UPS command topic. The controller subscribes to those topics and forwards supported commands to the trusted node UPS command API.

If a command is not currently supported for the target UPS, it is ignored.

Example Automations¶

Notify When A UPS Goes On Battery¶

alias: Notify UPS on battery
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.rack_ups_on_battery
    to: "on"
actions:
  - action: notify.mobile_app_phone
    data:
      title: "Power event"
      message: "Rack UPS is on battery power."
mode: single

Run A UPS Self Test Button¶

alias: Run weekly UPS quick test
triggers:
  - trigger: time
    at: "03:30:00"
conditions:
  - condition: time
    weekday:
      - sun
actions:
  - action: button.press
    target:
      entity_id: button.rack_ups_test_battery_start_quick
mode: single

Troubleshooting¶

No entities discovered:
verify controller was started with --mqtt-broker
verify Home Assistant and controller use the same MQTT broker
verify broker credentials for both services
Entities unavailable:
verify controller/availability and node availability topics are online
verify adopted nodes are still reachable and polling
Command button does nothing:
verify the UPS advertises that command in the controller UPS detail view
verify the node is adopted and trusted controller-to-node API calls are healthy

Current Scope¶

This guide covers MQTT discovery/state/button workflows.
The controller now also provides aggregate NUT server mode on :3493 with global enable/disable control from the controller Settings page.