I get the impression some people may benefit from knowing how others make their Home Automation able to more easily handle issues when they come up, and able to adapt to different devices and services that become available.
Warning / Request / Demand - Please use this as a chance to share positive or constructive contributions... Let's look at the useful outcomes of what may have been "inconvenient" circumstances for you...
I was going to make a list with my own comments, but... It's almost dinner time....
The kinds of things I was thinking people should be aware of or consider are:
The options Hubitat offers to restore from a previous backup in the event of "issues"
The ability to keep using old versions of HE Apps while new versions are introduced
Knowing the dependencies between different systems used in the home and understanding what happens when those dependencies break (e.g, turn the Internet off...)
Having alternative platforms available, like those typically hosted on a RPI, such as alternative Zigbee options, Home Assistant, Influx DB / Grafana, etc
Basically, my take on things is that HA in general is sold as a simple consumer feature anyone can add to their home (not necessarily by Hubitat exactly). It feels like there are still some IT principles that apply to ensuring changes are applied with due care and attention and proper rollback options considered, etc. Just my thought... And probably diverting significantly from where I set out to provide a much more productive and positive topic. Hopefully others can lift the mood
To make things as resiliant as possible, all my lights and there switches are devided umong two HUE hubs (I use HUE).
So every room has there lights devided over two hubs. I have two Hubitat hubs, spread over the houde (one on ground level, and one in tha attic). The two HUE hubs are devided over the Hubitat hubs, and meshed to oneanother.
So if a HUE hub or a Hubitat hub would breakdown, I will still have partial lights in every room.
All automations are run on the hubs, my main hub being dominant. So on a Hubitat hub breakdown, only automations do not run, but the devices themselves are stil manageble in manual state.
There is nothing more anoying than not being able to switch devices when a hub breaks down.
I will admit, once the "event stream" became available, that I was happy to move my lighting devices back to my Hue bridge (only one in my case), to allow control through multiple angles being HE and Hue. I have always been a believer of having options for control / access in each platform I have chosen.
I use a combination of Lutron Caseta, Zigbee, and Z-wave. I also have a few Hue bulbs on a Hue bridge and a few WiFi devices. Thus, if part of the system goes down, the remainder might continue to work. I use Amazon Alexa smart speakers for voice control.
Although Lutron Caseta devices are somewhat expensive, I like them because the switches, dimmers, and Pico remotes will continue to work as long as there is mains power. Even if the Hubitat hub and Lutron Pro bridge go offline, the lights can still be turned on and off. If the Pico remotes are paired directly with individual dimmers or switches, they will continue to work as well. If you have a Pico that is used to control multiple lights then the Lutron hub will need to be active.
While not covered explicitly by your post, that does remind me that I did once sit for a good half hour during a power outage with candles, surrounded by at least 4-5 hue go (battery powered) lamps, with 2-3 more in other rooms . Sometimes you don't realized what you have until you don't.
All my lights are automated, however the switches in every room will work weather my hubs are up or not. This makes these automation much more acceptable to the family since things can always (though are rarely) be controlled manually.
I also have all my devices on one hub and automations on another. This makes it super easy to swap devices, typically via hub mesh.
A big one for me was putting my Zigbee bulbs on a dedicated hub. Most Zigbee bulbs don't play nice with other devices. Many people aren't aware of this or find out the hard way. Some bulbs like the Sengleds don't repeat so they don't have the same issue but there are a lot of bulbs out there that do.
Interesting idea. Currently that wouldn't work too well for me but maybe I can add in some health checking so the hubs can decide which one is going to take control. Hmm...
. Sometimes you don't realized what you have until you don't.
