Catastrophic Crash and why you need to purchase HUB PROTECT

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....

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...

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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:

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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

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.

Yes:

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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.

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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.

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.

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

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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.

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.

Yah, I definitely don't think mine was the norm, but it does make me think twice about relying on it. I think it took me about 10- 15 hours across a week to get everything (mostly) back to normal and working correctly. I still have a hue indoor sensor I need to re-pair, but it's not exactly in use at the moment and I would need to move some dog cages to get to it, so it hasn't been a priority, though I am beginning to think about trying to automate that room again.

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Still not great that local backups are not complete backups.

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I bought a C-8 and I transferred my Hub Protect over from my C-5 thru the end of the term

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Ironic that I just read this because my hub two days ago suddenly became completely unresponsive. I’ve had this for probably 5 years now and never once had this issue. Fortunately a simple reboot got everything up and running again.

My ongoing theory about a subscription model for Hubitat is that they’ve made such an overall solidly-performing device that their revenue stream might hurt as a result. While I don’t subscribe to the Hub Protect, I’m supportive of their decision to offer a subscription because I think it is helping them and everyone else to continuously provide a decent product and people do need to make a living.

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I do find it funny when some people complain about Hubitat's decisions around this offering (not that recent poster's have complained necessarily... ). I've spent more on my Phillips Hue setup and there's no backup and restore from what I understand, but I can't say I have checked.

My Z devices are all Zigbee, split between a Hue bridge which has the majority, a dozen or so contact sensors and buttons paired to HE and a similar number paired to a Z2M instance. So for me, re-configuring devices following some kind of catastrophic failure on HE, or any of the platforms involved, would be inconvenient, but not worth paying an ongoing fee. Splitting the risk and the setup between platforms in this way offers some level of comfort for me, while increasing the risk of an incident admittedly, but one I am prepared to wear.

So, each to their own.... Like has been mentioned earlier, Hub Protect is still a relatively new offering and was not always available. Ultimately it is a commercial call on Hubitat's part... If enough customer's don't like it, I'm sure they'll adjust, but for now it is the customer's call as to whether they are happy with what is on offer, like any other platform.

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Hello everyone,

I had needed to use the cloud restore several times; and like the others; my results have been stellar.

After taking a cloud backup I have always made it a practice to download those cloud backups to my local NAS using the Diagnostic Tool utility. Several times I have tested a restore using the Backup and Restore screens and selecting a file hosted on HE infrastructure . They worked perfectly. No surprise there.

I repeated the exact same process, including using the same cloud backup file but this time the file was copied to and hosted on my local NAS. The restore worked but it did not restore the Z-Wave radio data. I suspect it would not have restored the Zigbee data either but I don't have any Zigbee devices so I am not sure. I am assuming not restoring the radio and other data if the cloud restore is not on HE Infrastructure is by design for some reason.

Although an option is provided to download cloud backups, maybe I am mistaken and downloaded cloud backups to your own local storage cannot be used and I should not expect to completely recover a hub using locally stored cloud backups. These locally-stored files are not valid for conducting a complete system recovery.

Thoughts / what am I doing wrong / comments appreciated,

Thanks,
Don

This is not possible and explains the rest of your problems. Local and cloud backups are different, cloud backups are only accessible on the cloud (so whatever you downloaded was not one of them), and they are also the only type that contain the radio data necessary to completely restore the radios in this manner.

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The "Download backups" link in the Diagnostic Tool only provides access to local backups, not the cloud backups.