So I'm currently running a single C7 hub with 2.3.7.145 - Using about 12 Zigbee Devices, and about 60 Zwave and maybe 30 RM 5.1 automations - Fair number of Apps, and I hit the existing C7 fairly hard with external data updates from MQTT, MakerAPI, and Hub Variables via local-endpoints.-
Got a new C8 over Christmas - Plan is to move all Zwave devices to the new C8, and most of the "interactive" RM automations (most of them), plan to add Matter to the C8. - and leave Zigbee (mainly just leak sensors) on the C7, and all the LAN apps, and external data to stay on the C7 - Then add hub-mesh as needed for the required cross-talk.
That's the goal, question is what is the best way to get there. - The options I'm aware of basically boil down to:
Do C7 cloud backup, disable Z-wave on C7, shutdown C7, restore backup to C8, delete most of the LAN integrations, and disable Zigbee on the C8. - Power up C7, add hub-mesh, and swap any local "old-Zwave" devices to new Hub-Mesh place holders. Remove most of the RM automations, given what's now executing on the C8 - Sort of a "big bang" on the radios, and will likely break a bunch of stuff as I deal with various devices that may have moved across hubs, and now are accessible via hub-mesh.
A bit more incremental - Basically, leave C7 alone, bring up C8, hub-mesh them together, and basically export/import one RM automaton at a time - Then "exclude" the devices for a given rule from the C7, and re-register/include them on the C8 - Adjust, rules, and hub-mesh devices/variables as needed - Leave all the LAN and Zigbee devices alone on the C7, add Matter devices onto C8 incrementally - Big lift here, is the manual exclude from C7/include to C8 of all the Z-Wave devices - Basically, having the Z-wave devices, move from C7->C8, one at a time. -
#2 is definitely a "slower slog", but allows me to clean up a few S0/S2 security issues, and just feels more controlled, and can happen over multiple weeks, versus the "big-bang" of #1.
So for the feedback part, am I missing some other option? - Do I understand the pros/cons of the above correctly? - For anyone that's "split" from a single hub to multiple, what's the best way to do that? - I just happen to be moving from a C7 to a C8 for the "new" hub while in that process.
Welcome any suggestions/advice at this point - or some consideration that I'm seriously overlooking (will two separate Z-Wave networks, play nicely during the prolonged migration of option 2?). Thanks in advance
Either plan gets to the same end, so the choice has to be yours to make. However, multiple ZWave or Zigbee (or Matter) meshes are not any sort of issue. It's not like they pump out RF all the time (nothing battery operated would work for more than a couple days.) The packet size is tiny and there's vast gaps in communications. Lots of time for simultaneous Z-device traffic. I have 6 powered hubs in my home and 4 of them have ZWave devices. For my home, I use area to determine which Hub a device belongs to: Upstairs, Downstairs, and 'Front'. Each has about 25+ ZWave devices. I have zero puzzles for which interference would be an answer. That's not me saying I have no interference, but me saying if everything fires at the expected half second or less then there's no troublesome interference.
OK - So given that, how did you do your migration to 6 hubs -
I'm assuming you started with just 1 hub, and given cloud/Zwave radio backups are relatively new, I'm assuming you effectively did #2, as you added hubs, and peeled stuff off from your starting configuration?
I started with a single Hubitat, a C-3 in 2018. Liked it and got another, a C-4 and did the split (upstairs / downstairs) migration manually, one device at a time, looking along the way to improve what could be improved, be it order of include or Rules (RM v2.5 at the time). I'd remove a device from the C-3 (becoming upstairs) and add it to the C-4 (becoming downstairs) along with all the rules.
A couple of C-5's replaced the C-3 & C4 and then the C-4 became the third hub. Worked with the Developer to create HubConnect, and am still using it. The third hub became 'Coordinator' -- which is the word I began using back then to be the central hub in HubConnect's hub and spoke topology.
Then came the C-7 and I started to plan out a manual migration off a C-5 to the new C-7 but changed my mind and started calling it 'front' because the way my house is laid out, the Z-devices have a 15 foot blank area - there's a bunch of devices in the front of the house, upstairs and down then a gap, and more devices towards the rear, and out into the yard. I decided it was smarter to have Upstairs (rearward), Downstairs (rearward), and Front (both up and down).
Then the C-8 came but I was still running my C-5's as if they were C-4s (external Zwave) and couldn't magic migrate. Had to be manual. I had been putting it off for a long time but with my first C-8 in hand, it was time to bite the bullet. I migrated Upstairs which has 20+ ZWave and 100% of my home's Zigbee. Couple weeks later I got the 2nd C-8 and did the manual migration all over again for Downstairs. I now have 2 C-8 (Upstairs and Down) with two C-7 (Front and Coordinator). Over time, the 'spare' hubs (C-7 and a C-5) became Development hubs and they don't have much permanently attached anyway.
