Catastrophic Crash and why you need to purchase HUB PROTECT

Why Hubitat Elevation
#1

Yesterday morning for the first time ever and inexplicably I had a total crash of my C7. I could not access the web interface and even a power cycle gave me no web interface. I could ping the c7 at the usual IP address, there was just no web interface and no devices or automations were working.

So, I entered the diagnostic interface at port 8081 and that web interface worked! Restore previous version did not work and ultimately I had to do a soft reset. I am posting here because ultimately I used my Hub Protect Cloud backup to restore to the automated cloud backup made at 2am.

The hub was completely restored with all 200+ of my devices, all my Zigbee & Z-Wave radio data was intact, all my apps and automations were back.

I cannot describe enough to the user community how valuable the HUB PROTECT subscription is and how perfectly it works. I have never had an event like this before and have no idea what caused it since it was while I was sleeping. I can tell you that the Hubitat team hit a home run with me as a happy user once again and kudos to them.

Good work guys!

30 Likes
#2

Glad to hear you're back up 100%. My workhorse c7 has hub protect and i can't imagine being without it.

#3

I also have hub protect, and like homeowners insurance, I hope I never need to use it.
Hub Protect provides insurance for both the hardware and software.

The other benefit of purchasing a Hub Protect subscription is that it help provide the staff with a regular influx of funds. Many people make a one time purchase of a hub and then expect the staff to provide support for the life of the product. It is unrealistic to think that the profit from the sale of a device is sufficient to cover the cost of providing support for many years to come.

Considering the amount of money that most of us have spent on home automation devices, the cost of a Hub Protect subscription is insignificant.

3 Likes
#4

My YouTube channel is devoted to self-hosting and I support open source projects where I can. I do know that the Hub Protect subscription also supports the great ongoing work at Hubitat and that is a good thing. My outage was a huge surprise, but everything has been rocket solid since so I am thankful.

1 Like
#5

This is the second time I have used Hub Protect to do a total restore. The first time was actually my fault in that I messed up my mesh and needed to restore radio info. This time was a true meltdown, but things have been rock solid since the restore.

1 Like
#6

I'm glad everything worked out for you. One question, though. When you say 'Restore previous version', do you mean you tried to restore from a local backup? -Tim

#7

I restored from the cloud backup since it has radio data in it.

1 Like
#8

Just signed up as I do agree with your statement.

1 Like
#9

Can Hub Protect be moved to a different hub? I've been delaying adding it on my C-5, as my intention is to replace it with the C-7....

#10

Someone please educate me here - are you saying that my local backups are missing the radio info that would be saved in a cloud backup? I totally agree that paying the team to continue development is great, but this would infuriate me to know...

1 Like
#11

Yes, that's correct. Local backups cover the hub configuration, local apps, etc - but not the radios.

:man_shrugging:
Can't help you on that front. :slight_smile:

7 Likes
#12

Ditto. Same scenario, woke to find HE was. . . rather, wasn't (accessible/running) yesterday. Within an hour I was back to where I was the night before, thanks to the cloud backup.

Thanks to the Hubi-gods. :wink:

...bob t

#13

I'd like to chime in that even with the current (only) risk of a Z-wave outage with cloud backup, I feel it's totally worth it.

To get back up and running from that Z-Wave crash merely requires a controlled shutdown and power cycle.

To get back up and running from a messed up hub, with Cloud Protect, also not a big deal, considering what you'd have to go through with no radio backup.

#14

Yes:

1 Like
#15

I’m not sure if it helps, but here’s some background info on the history of hub backups. It’s a little hard to summarize briefly, but here goes.

For a while, local backups were the only kind, and they did not include z-wave or zigbee radio information. The exact reasons why are beyond my understanding, but there were technical limitations that required work by the development team to solve. I think it was more related to zigbee than z-wave, although I’m not positive.

That solution evidently included a decision to store the backup in the cloud. I’m uncertain if that was the only possible way to do it, but that’s how it was implemented. Cloud backups were rolled out as a part of the optional hub protect subscription service, which also includes an extended warranty with hub replacement.

Cloud backups became even more versatile when Hubitat released the C8 hub along with a functioning hub migration tool. Users that upgraded from a C7 hub to a C8 were even given the ability to save a cloud backup for migration usage, without needing to subscribe to hub protect.

So overall, I think the Hubitat team has done right by us as customers.

7 Likes
#16

You can count me among those hesitant to subscribe to Hub Protect (I’m generally sick of the subscription model in everything). I would be much more likely to buy into Hub Protect if it was account based (covering all of my hubs) rather than hub based. I’d even be open to a model of a base hub for the current cost , plus like $5 for each additional hub. But full price for multiple hubs get cost prohibitive pretty quick.

#17

Users who have multiple hubs covered by Hub Protect do not pay the full cost of a Hub Protect subscription for every hub. The first hub is $29.99. Each additional hub is $19.99.

In my opinion, that price is modest for a device that costs $150-180; and can take several hours to setup if one has to factory reset and then re-pair dozens of zigbee and zwave devices. Hub Protect totally eliminates that time-consuming process.

Anyway, just wanted to clarify for anyone else reading this thread that a Hub Protect subscription is discounted for each additional hub.

5 Likes
#18

Albeit not automatically -- you have to know to enter the coupon code multi-hubs or you'll be charged full price again, IIUC.

3 Likes
#19

It has (admittedly) been a while since I looked at it. Seems like they may have restructured it since it was initially launched.

If the C8 cloud migration was a similar experience, that ended up taking e several hours and I had to re-include all of my Zigbbe and 2 ZWAVE devices. I would probably have been better off starting over from nothing. it was anything but the effortless painless experience it was supposed to be.

I appreciate that. i may go ahead and take another look at it. it seems like maybe it has changed somewhat since it was introduced.

#20

FWIW, I have done a Hub Protect cloud migration three times. And it worked perfectly all three times.

  1. From C-5 to C-7 (~60 z-wave devices)
  2. From C-7 to C-7 with external antenna (only z-wave)
  3. From C-7 to C-8 (z-wave and ~20 zigbee devices)

I don't know some migrations have not been as easy as mine.

Download the Hubitat app