As far as your logging. I would suggest you look at InfluxDB Logger. It received updates earlier this year that among other things enabled it to work with a free Cloud InfluxDB Account and has had significant performance improvements as well. The Cloud InfluxDB account has the ability to setup dashboards if you wish to. There are limits so if you outgrow it then you could migrate it to something local like a raspberry pi and such.
I think the thing with multiple hubs was largely grew from users that had older hubs that were not as capable as the C5, C7, or C8 gear. Earlier hubs really struggled with certain aspects of larger setups. They were also used when certain hardware compability issue started to show up. The idea being something like keep problem devices isolated so they didn't break better behaving devices. I personally have 2 but I just use one for dev activity. My Main hub controls my entire house with 120+ devices.
Simplicity comes from experience, that is the reality. New users overcomplicate their rules before narrowing down the algorithm. To avoid this, planning automation ahead, can save a lot of grief in the long run.
Another point to understand is that the Hubitat Hub is event driven. When designing Rules (or writing Apps and Drivers), strive to focus on events rather than polling. Polling is not good, and can quickly overload your hub.
When I started out with HE, I had some really complex rules because I wanted "everything in one place." I had one RM rule that was so complicated that the UI struggled to open it. Then someone said "rules are free" and I realized that was so. I split things up — a lot — and simplified, and everything works so much better and is so much easier to debug.
Welcome to the forum, ex smartthings myself. Wife hated it.
Since my c7 - it's ace, just works, wife loves it.
Nuff said.
I'm a one hub guy. Don't see any need for additional, and I absolutely batter it (smart heating, lighting, motion, Garage door, cctv, contact sensors, humidity, power monitoring...). Mostly webcore based.
If these are zll 1.2 I would install these on either a hue bridge or another hubitat and make sure nothing else but bulbs are on that mesh. They make bad repeaters and don't play nice with ZHA..
If you haven't read it, take a look at this post...
Hi, I'm also a new c8 user this week that just finished migrating 60+ devices from ST v2 after 8 years. After last week's ST debacle, where all my devices and hub were deleted by Samsung accidentally, I took the opportunity to switch platforms, since I had to start over anyways.
I have 8 Sylvania ZigBee bulbs and I actually started with those first in hubitat since they were in our bedrooms and I needed to be able to control them somehow. Just chiming in to say the Sylvania ZigBee bulbs paired mostly painlessly to my c8 hub. The only issue I had was that 3 of the bulbs kept randomly turning on for no reason at all. Every time I turned them off, after 5 mins - 30 mins, they would be on again. What ended up fixing them was to reset them and re-pair them. And then they were fine.
I also have 3 Monoprice/Zooz 4in1 devices, same issues as OP. 1 picked the correct driver on it's own. The other 2 I manually switched from the bulb. Oddly, the one that picked the correct driver I had to re-pair the next day because it stopped responding, but it's been fine since.
Other than that, all my devices are supported by hubitat and as far as I can tell they all work at least the same if not better than in ST. My only complaint is that Smartthings "looked" and felt more polished. As a novice user, I only use my smartphone and alexa for control, so at least on my phone the ST App was good enough for me. But the Hubitat app, sadly isn't polished enough. For some reason the lighting tab doesn't report the states correctly or fast enough. I have to close the app and re-open to get it to update. The Dashboard seems ok, but with my limited css skills, my preliminary attempt at a dashboard is kind of ugly. At least it's functional though. Currently trying Hubivue as an alternative, but I wish i didn't need a 2nd app.
The only other thing I miss is lock code management remotely. I have set up a dashboard for lock code management in the hubitat app, it's clunky but at least it works. From what I read it seems the only other option is a vpn, which I'm not sure I want to set up. Glancing through the forums I saw a lot of warnings with the BE469 zwave locks, so they were the last things I paired and I was happy it went smoothly and that I didn't have to move them closer to the hub to pair them.
Overall I'm happy I switched over. After what happened with ST, a method to do a backup was a requirement for the new platform. I basically have to rebuild all my automation/routines that I slowly tweaked over the past 8 years from scratch, with nothing to go on.
Just a note. If they are the 500 series chip version, you really want these paired with no security. The default is s0 and they're implantation is poor and it will spam the mesh on a 700/800 series chip hub slowing down things or crashing the mesh...
If these are zll 1.2 and not 3.0 bulbs, you really want to put them on a hue bridge or another hubitat as they make terrible repeaters and can cause a lot of issues in a mesh with ZHA zigbee devices (sensors and what not)
If you're interested in keeping your old ST hub in service, look into using the Maker API (hubitat side) and the Mira Edge driver on the ST side.
It lets you share your Hubitat devices to ST within your own network (no cloud usage).
Then you can control your Hubitat devices with the ST app.
Once you have a VPN you'll wonder how you lived w/out it. But the difficulty varies depending on the router. One relatively simple option is the TailScale VPN which they refer to as a "zero configuration" VPN. Pretty close to that, fast, reliable, and based on industry leader WireGuard VPN.
Hubitat offers a "remote admin" package for a very nice annual price that allows you to access your hub remotely. Excellent option if you want to skip VPN. Click on the Subscriptions button on your hub UI for more info:
i'm not really sure which series chips are in my 4-in-1s, but they are pretty old and use AAA batteries, so i'm guessing the 500 series chip. I never had any mesh issues though when I was on ST with them over the years. Same with the Sylvania Zigbee bulbs, they are pretty old and never had issues before...so hopefully they continue to be fine. But i'll keep these 2 in mind if I do run into issues. Thanks.
It actually looks like all my devices besides one, connect directly to the C8. Oddly, the one that doesn't directly connect is one of the 3 Easton/Cooper Zwave light switches directly in front of the hub, like 8 feet away. The 2 other switches (one on the left and one on the right) directly connect. But the one in the middle, takes 2 in between hops, starting on the floor above at the other end of the house, then coming closer. I have no idea why, but it doesn't seem to be a big deal. I tried Zwave repair a couple times, but it didn't change anything so i left it.
As far as remote access, i'm hoping to stay with a free option, so i'll see if I can live without VPN for now and maybe go that route if necessary.
I wish I knew about the Mira Edge driver before. That actually may have been a good solution. Sadly, i was so done with ST, i already deleted my account yesterday and gave the ST hub to a friend that has no smart home devices that was interested in starting to play around with them.
I think in the long run you'll find the hubs features and functions, the HE community here, and the resulting capabilities much more to your liking over time. I moved from ST a few years ago, and I never really had many problems on ST, must have been on a shard that was less troublesome, but I'm so glad I came over to HE. Just a superior solution w/more options and opportunities across the board for me. I hope you like it as well.
If not, come here and yell at @rlithgow1 - anything that you don't like is his fault.
I already use Wireguard VPN but also set up a free Cloudflare tunnel just to experiment. It seems to work a great. The only cost is that you have to have your own domain. However, local URLs for dashboards don't seem to work so just use the cloud versions.
The Ledvance manufactured lights are zha 1.2. I read somewhere that it was a Silabs chip. They haven’t been problematic for me, but I do have them on a separate mesh.
Yes!! This was one of the very first post I went through, and helped me prepare for the setup. For the time being, I have put these aside for later, when I am feeling adventurous:
Sylvania Bulbs
Zen25 double plugs (they are on firmware ver 1)
HPM and Hub Info Driver are fantastic! I am only at <22% cpu usage peak, observed when I refreshed during a bundle installation; and 2-3% typical 5-min run average. So yeah, one hub is more than capable indeed.
Agreed!
Ouch! That definitely sucks. And yes, being able to take a backup is supercool. And I learnt that folks could migrate devices from C7 to C8 without having to exclude/include again, that feature sounds fantastic!!
I had planned to move to Hubitat by Dec, but the Homebridge plugin kept running, and I kept procrastinating. And when C8 launched with external antennas, I decided to make the change. I only have 30-40% of the automations re-created so far. It has definitely given me a chance to build from clean state, rather than patchwork I did in ST.
Yeah, all z-wave devices are added without security. I saw the thread on Zooz devices as well and kept them all off-security. Locks yes with security, everything else, no.
Even though I run a Raspberry Pi 3B with Homebridge, and pi-hole, I could not figure out the InfluxDB or the VPN setup, at least not at first glance. Something for longer term.
Dashboard and App: Yes, I agree with the sentiment. And from gleaning at the forum posts, it appears most people use third party dashboards, so it has been lower priority. Not an issue for me personally, since I use Homekit for everything (Wife Acceptance Factor), and few ActionTiles dashboards on old tablets.
That said, I would have to add caveats when I recommend Hubitat to everyone I know. There is indeed a bit of learning curve, and it is not a plug n play system for masses, (but then none of the home automation systems are plug n play anyway). It was an easier transition for me since I spent a lot of time on ST tinkering around, and at least a week or two of reading the forums preparing for the switch.
Community here is awesome, that is for sure! I lurked in the ST community but never posted. I felt compelled to thank folks here, especially for continuing where Samsung/ST dropped the ball. (For non-coding folks like me, Home Assistant config files seemed like nightmare fuel.)
But the difficulty varies depending on the router. One relatively simple option is the 
