Migrating from earlier hub to C-7 hub?

Are there instructions, options and recommendations for migrating devices, apps and configurations from earlier hubs (in my case C-4) to the C-7 hub?

Sorry if I missed this.

Some basic questions:

  • In order to move migrate my devices to the C-7 do you need to exclude all the z-wave and remove the zigbee devices before they can be added to the C-7?

  • Can a backup of a prior hub be restored to the C-7? If yes, what does that give you.

  • If Apps and their configurations can be migrated will the properly reference migrated devices?

Optional question: Should I continue to use the C-4 and implement hub-connect? If yes, what would I let the CV-4 handle continue to handle?

Thanks, Glenn

This post should help address your questions. There is no automated path of migrating your devices going from C3/4 to C7:

1 Like

and consider (not radio be rules?)

https://community.hubitat.com/t/hub-protection-service-coming-soon/45408

EDIT: I guess we are skipping the most basic question, why do you want to upgrade?

The OP has a C-4 so the Hub Protection Service wouldn't offer migration. That's done (manually) via the Topic @bravenel made, which @ritchierich has suggested.

As @TechMedX suggests, we don't know what your goals are to make good suggestions, but for me, multiple hubs is a solution looking for a problem. Fortunately for me, I had problems that HubConnect solved. I've deduced that most/many Z-meshes are I/O bound, meaning they are a limited resource and more to the point, the resource is something we love to consume. We add devices as quickly as we can get them and some of them have extra features that can hurt in certain circumstances.. I'm thinking of power monitoring. The vendors default them to making power/voltage/current reports rather often. In no time at all, the Z-radios are processing very little other than power reports. That lead me to think about how to get more Z-radio bandwidth. Turning off chatty devices is one, but parallelism struck me early on as the answer. I limit myself to X devices per radio and even splitting my home into "upstairs" and "downstairs" sets of devices.

You can predict the future to some degree... most new devices will be introduced with S2. So you could start with using your C-4 for older non-S2 devices and use the C-7 for the newer S2 devices. You could split your home too.. maybe Front and Back or Left and Right. My point being, there's nothing obsolete in my collection of C-3s + C-4s + C-5s. They run my home quite well. :smiley:

2 Likes

I'm planning to use my C-7 as my main hub, and put all my "External" devices (imported through apps n such) on my old C-5 to split the load.

I did notice a considerable delay when using Echo Speaks on my C-5, so I plan on running that on the C-5 with less devices to see how it goes. I would use my C-7 for my dashboard though

1 Like

withdrawn

That's a good question. Maybe I don't need to upgrade.

2 Likes

I have one of the first generation hubs and I want to upgrade. Is there a way to migrate to the new hub?

1 Like

The choice for those of us with the C-3 and C-4 is a manual migration. It's not so much hard as it is tedious.

The C-5 owners will have the choice of Manual, or, eventually, Hubitat's Protection feature.

1 Like

I'd wait for 2.2.4. Although hub mesh will not make it any less tedious, you can use it to spread out the load rather than have to do all at once.

2 Likes

I tried a bunch of the time-saving, less impactful migration methods but eventually just did a complete manual migration.

Migration Steps:

  1. Fired up C-7
  2. Executed Z-Wave Firmware Update (C-7)
  3. Made note of all the devices and apps configured on the C-4
  4. Uninstalled all Apps (C-4)
  5. Excluded all Z-Wave Devices (C-4)
  6. Included Z-Wave Devices (C-7)
  7. Remove all Zigbee Devices (C-4)
  8. Add Zigbee Devices (C-7)
  9. Removed all LAN and Cloud Devices (C-4)
  10. Added all LAN and Cloud Devices (C-7)
  11. Factory Reset and Shut-Down C-4
  12. Began installing and configuring apps

Notes:

  • When removing Z-Wave and Zigbee devices from the C-4 I started with the battery (non-repeater) devices and then went to the devices furthest away from the C-4 working my way inward.
  • Where there were issues excluding devices using the C-4, I used the device factory reset instructions to ensure it was properly excluded and ready to be included with the C-7.
  • When including Z-Wave and Zigbee devices with the C-7, starting with non-battery devices closest to the C-7 working outward followed by including battery devices.
  • A few times during the process of including Z-Wave devices I stopped and ran a Z-Wave repair.
  • When including Z-Wave devices with the C-7, only employed Z-Wave security with locks, garage doors, and security devices.

Obviously this approach is quite time consuming and I'm still slowly rebuilding my automations. Was it worth it all? I don't know. Things seem more stable and faster but that might just be a placebo effect similar to how you think your car is faster after its been detailed.

One unexpected benefit. My wife realized she prefers home automation that occasionally has issues over no home automation which has resulted in Alexa and me receiving far fewer curses, but this may also be a placebo effect...

2 Likes

You mean reset zigbee and re-pair on the C7? There is no exclude zigbee option.

The process I used was

  1. Load my C3 backup on my C7.
  2. Turn off my C3.
  3. Go to all my zigbee devices and do a pair to the C7. They will be found as an existing device and work as they did on the C3 using all apps they were configured to.
  4. Follow the steps for migrating a zwave network listed in post 2.
    You should now be working with all your zigbee and zwave devices and apps/rules that you had on your C3 working on your C7.

The zigbee part is very easy but the zwave part is tedious and I would recommend you take your time when pairing devices.
Worked for me though.

Edit. Lan and cloud devices may have to installed from new depending on the device.

2 Likes

@bobbles I thought I'd try your process, but when I restore my new C7 with C4 backup, my C7 hangs at 60% upon reboot. Any ideas as I like your process much better than @glenn which is basically starting from scratch.
Thoughts anyone?

Odd. I was successful backing up my C-4 and restoring that backup to a C-7.

Not sure what to say. Sorry.
As I've documented worked for me.

So I tried a soft reset (via port 8081). It returns to the settings page, but with Error 500 displayed. I hit refresh and I'm back to the 60% Initializing Hub and being stuck.

Ok, so I tried going into Safe Mode and every section returns Error 500.

Now I'm going to try to rollback the firmware from 2.2.5.131 to what was originally on the hub, 2.2.3.148

Ugh. Now this too is hanging at 60%. Did I just brick my hub?