I’m looking at the C8, just like everyone else. Many years ago, I migrated from ST to C5 and shortly after added the C7 for S2 and better battery life. However, most of my devices, cloud functions (Home Bridge, Amazon, Google, Ecobee, and others), and rule execution (RM and Webcor) are on C5 meshed with C7. No complaints it works, and it works well. C5 has about 91 physical devices (Z-Wave, Zigbee, LAN) and virtual, not including meshed devices, and C7 has 18 physical devices for the most part, but no Zigbee. I don’t have any “monitoring” other than Hub Information. For the most part the CPU on the C5 is 0.13 / 3.25, and lower in most cases, and the C7 CPU is 0.5 / 1.25% or lower. It doesn’t seem CPUs are heavily stressed.
Should I think about doing things differently? Dividing up the tasks, giving each a role. Do I just transfer everything to a C8 and use one hub? Or should I deprecate the C5 by moving everything to C8 (RM and WebCor) and then use the C7 for Web/Lan-based functions (WeMo, Bond, Ecobee, Alexa, Google Home)? Or do something like C5 for all the network integration Web/LAN-based functions (WeMo, Bond, Ecobee, Alexa, Google Home), C7 (RM and WebCor), and C8 for all of the ZigBee and Z-Wave devices and then mesh all that together?
What is the best course here? Keep in mind I don’t want too much caring and feeding to this. If you look at everything, between firmware (multiple hubs and devices), Rules (things do change from time to time), and application updates, besides things like migrations. After a while, it does start taking on its own life. I get it, no pain no gain. I know too, it isn’t one size, fits all. I’m looking for the best possible outcome without increasing work and maintenance over a longer period.
i'm of the mindset "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". i'm in a similar boat of running a C-5 and C-7, and my network is running fine. i still have a C-8 in my cart though, but am on the fence about getting one since my stuff is fine
in regards to setting up your config, unless you're finding the C-5 running sluggish, no reason to load balance or get a separate hub to run specific things
I have 4 Hubitat Hubs in my Production system, along with a Lutron SmartBridgePro. Finishing out the System are Instances of: HomeBridge, Node-Red and HubConnect Proxy server running on an always on Mac Mini. If one imagined those last instances as hubs, then my total system is 8 "Hubs". And to me, this feels normal
One of the existing 4 Hubitat Hubs is a C-5 and I have gotten used to the additional features related to ZWave offered in the C-7 (individual repair/replace) and for at least a year, I've had plans to swap the C-5 for a C-7 but didn't get around to it. Now a C-8 is on it's way and my excuses are going to have to flee.
I've never heard of a choice of how to organize hubs that doesn't work... just choices that are better for an individual's situation. My choices were to slice my home into logical areas... Upstairs and Downstairs initially. I wanted to limit the number of devices to 65 per hub.. 65 is just MY arbitrary dart throw. I achieved my goals. Each hub runs the Rules it needs for the devices attached. A 3rd "coordinator" hub has all the Internet facing tasks/drivers and I continue to use HubConnect vs HubMesh to share devices between hubs. Each hub has a connection to Node-Red for any specialized Rules I may choose.
I checked the Docs but cannot find a clear answer to this: Does HubMesh™ allow you to migrate Rules and/or Virtual Devices between hubs? (That would be neat if it could.)
Or is it intended solely to allow control and sync of locally-connected hubs?
I think this is actually a personal question and really relies on your personal preferences.
I think something to remember is that the biggest differences between the C5 to the C7 to the C8 are largely about the radio's included and not really CPU or Memory. So in theory CPU/Memory tasks shouldn't be to much of a reason to split unless you are actually running out of them.
I personally have one C7 driving my entire house. I have over 120 devices of which 52 are Zwave and probably 20 Zigbee devices. Then a fairly good portion of Wifi devices and a handful of virtual. Other then a few device edge cases my setup runs very well. The C7 doesn't really struggle with them at all
I am pondering the idea of splitting my Lan stuff from the C8, but it is just a thought right now as it all runs fine probably 99% of the time.
I would say try to keep it all as simple as possible unless there is a good known reason to change it.
A good break down is this. Hub A contains some devices and Rule machine. Hub B contains a few devices and may or may not have rule machine. For the moment we'll say it doesn't. 3 Devices are shared via hub mesh on B to A. Hub A now sees these essentially as devices in it's own device list. Hub A executes rules with shared device in it's list and device does what it does. Hub B in the mean time is content having it's devices do whatever. But lo and behold. Room Lighting gets put on Hub B and has rules set up to control it's devices as well as a shared device from Hub A and RL executes it's rules regardless that it's local stuff is shared to Hub A. Hub A doesn't care because it doesn't interfere with what it's doing. Basically you're making one giant hub.
Thank you all for your input. This helps. I need to ponder more. I think C8 is something I am going to need. Between radios, thread/matter coming out later and other items this is a progression of moving forward. I need to figure out how much legacy I want to carry and what that should look like.
