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Installation Overview

openHAB 2 is based on the Eclipse SmartHome framework and is fully written in Java. As such, it only depends on a Java Development Kit, which is available for many platforms. openHAB can be executed on different versions of Mac OS X and Windows and many different variants of Linux (Ubuntu, Raspbian, ...).

Please be aware of the fact, that openHAB 2 is based on a new core and introduces new concepts. Therefore, tutorials and help you may find on the internet for openHAB 1 might be outdated!

Platform Recommendations

  1. You are new to openHAB 2 and want to give it a try? You are in luck:
  • Set up openHAB 2 on your local PC or Mac in just a few steps.
  1. You gained some experience and want to use openHAB to seriously control your home? Typical hardware and software requirements are:
    • 24/7 availability: A dedicated system connected by Ethernet and running continuously.
    • Energy and space efficient: A device capable of performing the task at hand without being exaggerated
    • Extendibility: Your system should be capable of running additional software like an MQTT broker or a persistence and graphing software.
    • Peripherals: Depending on your home automation hardware, you will need additional peripheral devices such as a WiFi interface or a special USB radio module.

Many devices are suited to host a continuous installation of openHAB 2. The Raspberry Pi as a minimal sufficient device is quite popular, experiences with many other devices can be found in the community forum hardware section.

Prerequisites

Make sure that you have an up to date version of the Oracle Java Development Kit on your host system installed. A famous choice is OpenJDK, however, Oracle Java Version 8 is recommended for openHAB. openHAB may be unstable and slower executed by OpenJDK.

Oracle Java offers significant performance advantages over OpenJDK on ARM platforms, and will expand the range of Java applications that run well [on the Raspberry Pi].

Check your current Java version by opening a console and typing "java -version":

java version "1.8.0 73"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_73-b02)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.73-b02, mixed mode)

If your output differs, please install Oracle Java 8.

Setup variants

Before you can start, three decisions have to be made:

  1. openHAB 2 is available as a platform independent archive file or through a package repository:
  • Manual setup: Download and extract a platform independent zip archive: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
  • Package setup: Install though a package repository, including automatic updates. This option is only available for Debian or Ubuntu derivatives and the recommended choice: Linux (apt/deb)
  1. Stable release or cutting edge:

Because openHAB 2 is still under heavy development, it is recommended for experienced users to use the latest snapshot.

  1. The distribution is available in two flavors:
  • Offline: This package contains all available add-ons and allows installing them locally, i.e. completely offline.
  • Online: This package only contains the core runtime and downloads any add-on from a remote repository.

We currently recommend to use the "offline" version and to update regularly.

Installation

Please follow the instructions in the installation article matching your platform.

Additional Steps

After you got openHAB 2 set up and running, there are a few additional setup steps you should consider:

  • Configure a network share on your openHAB host device and mount it locally: Linux Samba Share, Windows file sharing, ...
  • Install the Eclipse SmartHome Designer on your local machine, to manage your (remote) configuration files. The designer comes with built-in support for the openHAB syntax and elements.

Getting started

With the openHAB 2 distribution up and running, you should now continue with the Demo Tutorial, the Beginner Tutorial or by working on your own configuration.

Help

The very active openHAB Community Forum provides many more details and hints. If you run into any problems, use the search function or open a new thread with your detailed question.