Here my description/documentation for my Home-Assistant installation with Zigbee. I have the following setup:
- Dockerized Home Assistant. (So no option to install add-ons.)
- Mosquitto MQTT already operating in a separate docker.
- A SMLIGHT SLZB-06Mg24 ethernet Zigbee controller
The SMLIGHT zigbee controller was already running in combination with the ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) Integration, but since Zigbee2MQTT has a wider support, now making the choice to migrate to Zigbee2MQTT.
Note: While migrating i (mis)-used the european AI tool “Le Chat” a lot.
Docker setup
To start with the migration we have to install the Zigbee2MQTT Add on as a docker. To facilitate this i ended up with the following docker-compose.yml, putting mosquitto and Zigbee2MQTT together:
version: '3.8'
services:
mosquitto:
image: eclipse-mosquitto:latest
container_name: mosquitto
restart: always
ports:
- "1883:1883" # MQTT-poort
volumes:
- /opt/mosquitto/config/mosquitto.conf:/mosquitto/config/mosquitto.conf
- /opt/mosquitto/config/passwd:/mosquitto/config/passwd
- /opt/mosquitto/data:/mosquitto/data/
- /opt/mosquitto/log:/mosquitto/log/
networks:
- homeautomation
zigbee2mqtt:
image: koenkk/zigbee2mqtt:latest
container_name: zigbee2mqtt
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "8080:8080" # Web-interface
environment:
- TZ=Europe/Amsterdam
volumes:
- /opt/mosquitto/z2mqtt:/app/data # Configuratie en data location.
networks:
- homeautomation
depends_on:
- mosquitto
networks:
homeautomation:
driver: bridgeIn this stack-config is mosquitto started first, and after mosquitto is correctly started zigbee2mqtt is started.
Configuring Zigbee2MQTT
Before starting up Zigbee2MQTT, you need to do 2 things:
- create your zigbee2mqqt configuration.yaml, which is placed in the /opt/mosquitto/mqtt/ folder:
Special attention for the homeassistant settings: these are absolutely needed. Struggled to long to get this working, as AI did not give the correct position for this setting…. - Stop and disable the ZHA integration inside HA, as they will both try to connect to the SLZB-06Mg24. It is a good idea the create a backup on forehand.
mqtt:
base_topic: zigbee2mqtt
server: mqtt://mosquitto
user: <your mqtt user>
password: <your mqtt password>
# HINT: serial config below is copied from de SLZB config page (http://192.168.x.x/z2m_zha), this works better than other suggestions.
serial:
# Location of SLZB-06Mg24
port: tcp://192.168.X.X:6638
baudrate: 115200
adapter: ember
# Disable green led?
#disable_led: false
frontend:
enabled: true
homeassistant:
enabled: true
advanced:
# Set output power to max 20
transmit_power: 20
network_key: GENERATE # Let Zigbee2MQTT generate a new network-key (Wil be added to this config file)
version: 4To stop/start the docker stack you use the following commands:
docker-compose down
docker-compose up -dWhen the dockers are started, you kan check if zigbee2mqtt is started correctly:
docker logs zigbee2mqtt
Using '/app/data' as data directory
Starting Zigbee2MQTT without watchdog.
[2026-01-28 13:21:13] info: z2m: Logging to console, file (filename: log.log)
[2026-01-28 13:21:13] info: z2m: Starting Zigbee2MQTT version 2.7.2 (commit #3a49c95786c2fba749e7696aab4cc38e467d2c4c
)
[2026-01-28 13:21:13] info: z2m: Starting zigbee-herdsman (8.0.1)
[2026-01-28 13:21:13] info: zh:ember: Using default stack config.
[2026-01-28 13:21:13] info: zh:ember: ======== Ember Adapter Starting ========
[2026-01-28 13:21:13] info: zh:ember:ezsp: ======== EZSP starting ========
[2026-01-28 13:21:13] info: zh:ember:uart:ash: ======== ASH Adapter reset ========
[2026-01-28 13:21:13] info: zh:ember:uart:ash: Socket ready
[2026-01-28 13:21:13] info: zh:ember:uart:ash: ======== ASH starting ========
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: zh:ember:uart:ash: ======== ASH connected ========
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: zh:ember:uart:ash: ======== ASH started ========
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: zh:ember:ezsp: ======== EZSP started ========
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: zh:ember: Adapter EZSP protocol version (14) lower than Host. Switched.
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: zh:ember: Adapter version info: {"ezsp":14,"revision":"8.0.2 [GA]","build":397,"major":8,"minor":0,"patch":2,"special":0,"type":170}
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: zh:ember: [STACK STATUS] Network up.
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: zh:ember: [INIT TC] Adapter network matches config.
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: zh:ember: [CONCENTRATOR] Started source route discovery. 1248ms until next broadcast.
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: z2m: zigbee-herdsman started (resumed)
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: z2m: Coordinator firmware version: '{"meta":{"build":397,"ezsp":14,"major":8,"minor":0,"patch":2,"revision":"8.0.2 [GA]","special":0,"type":170},"type":"EmberZNet"}'
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: z2m: Currently 0 devices are joined.
[2026-01-28 13:21:15] info: z2m: Connecting to MQTT server at mqtt://mosquitto
[2026-01-28 13:21:16] info: z2m: Connected to MQTT server
[2026-01-28 13:21:16] info: z2m:mqtt: MQTT publish: topic 'zigbee2mqtt/bridge/state', payload '{"state":"online"}'
[2026-01-28 13:21:16] info: z2m: Zigbee2MQTT started!
So that is looking good! With following command you can also see if de zigbee2MQTT sends messages to mosquitto: (I usually run this on a seperated ssh screen.)
mosquitto_sub -v -h docker -u <mqtt_user> -P <password> -t '#' | ts
# ts adds a timestamp before the message comes in.Also, after enabling the frontend (which i did not at first) you can use your web-browser to look there: http://192.168.x.x:8080/. The sad thing is that i lost all my connected devices (i worked with ZHA first)… So i have to reinstall them all :-(.
(Re)connecting zigbee devices
To (re)connect your devices, you need to open de GUI, and klick on the left-menu below on the “Join Allow” button. After that, you can add new devices.
As i was migrating, i had to find out for all my devices how to do the factory-reset (or more). You can find the cheat-codes how to do that here.