#OTBR on multi-interface HA Server

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jovial finch
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I have HA set up with multiple interfaces (VLANs.) Most everything works except for Matter commissioning. I have MDNS reflection enabled on my router (UniFi) including my user network and both IoT networks (isolated-iot, cloud-iot).

Thread is working fine from HA. I have both Matter and Homekit thread devices talking to my HA OTBR and they are working great. The problem is that OTBR _meshcop._udp advertisements are not showing up on my home VLAN. I can see OTBR advertisements from all of my HomePods and an Aqara hub, but not the HA OTBR. So this means when I go to add a new thread device, I get an error: "Failed to save thread network credential, error: Thread network credentials does not match with any of the active thread networks around"
So even though Thread is working, my phone can't see the HA OTBR.
I suspect the answer might be to set the "Backbone Network Interface" which has the note "The network interface used for the backbone network. If not specified, it falls back to the primary interface."
Still, even if OTBR used the wrong interface, MDNS adverts should still be showing up because of MDNS reflection.
Anyway, other MDNS services are working between HA and the various VLANs. For example, all of my HA HomeKit hubs show up. This is why I think it's a problem with the OTBR "app" rather than with HA. Any help would be appreciated.

frail stratus
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ipv6 mDNS reflection can be hit or miss and inconsistent.

burnt thorn
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You mentioned that HA has multiple VLANs, but you also mentioned mDNS reflector which is generally used when HA is not connected to some IOT VLAN and the reflector is trying to relay to the VLAN HA is connected to, so not sure which VLANs are connected to HA and which ones are not. I also agree that reflectors are hit and miss, and IPv6 kinda makes things worse

worthy quartz
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mdns reflection is insufficient, because having the ipv6 address doesn't help if you don't have a route to the ipv6 network that device is on

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the thread border router sends out ipv6 router announcements that are used by other devices to add routes to the thread network, but only devices on the same network will receive them

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and iirc otbr doesn't handle multiple network interfaces, it might only be sending the router announcements on one interface?

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the recommended network setup is to have home assistant only on a single network link/vlan, which is the same network as where all of your thread border routers are, and also that you need to be able to connect your phone via wifi to the same network in order to commission thread devices (and if it's an android phone, it also needs internet access)

jovial finch
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I was able to resolve this by creating an interface for HA on the same VLAN as my Apple OTBRs and setting the HA OTBR App to use that interface as the backbone. As @worthy quartz mentioned, all OTBRs need to see the same RAs. I was able to get communication working in one direction with static IPv6 routes (Apple->HA) but the Apple OTBRs won't pass any non-local traffic to the mesh. Anyway - multiple interfaces works fine as long as you have your OTBR bound to an interface on the same subnet as any other OTBRs.

burnt thorn