I am trying to verify (or not) that if I have hub protect I can reconfigure a spare hub without needing to add any devices manually?
For example, I have a C8 at my house and want to know if I keep a second C8 online but not doing anything, if the active hub dies can I download the config and replace the active hub with the standby without needing to re add any devices?
I have remote access to my house anyway so can access the hubs remotely so wish to know if I can get the "standby" hub working as the active hub without the need to physically access any of the devices.
If you have Hub Protect, and you are scheduling cloud backups, I don't see why you couldn't use remote admin to remotely restore the latest cloud backup to the spare hub if the first one dies. You wouldn't really need hub protect or cloud backup subscriptions on both, as you could transfer the subscription to the spare hub first to be able to restore the cloud backup on it.
You may want to keep the radios off on the spare hub until you need it, then turn them on and restore the backup. You would want to keep the the spare hub updated to the same level as the first hub, since that is not included in the backup, or update the spare hub to the same level as the first one before restoring the backup.
Seems doable to me, others may have more to offer.
You will really need to wrap a lot of stuff around this to make it work. The Hubs have zero failover ability.
You can take a cloud backup of you primary/active hub and then use that cloud backup to restore to your standby hub. At that point, both hubs are identical, confusing the heck out of the devices. This is why the standard solution is to power off the "source hub" while restoring the backup. And I'd suggest this in your case too. You would leave one hub powered off and let the restored hub become the primary/active.
Every time you add a device, you have to go through the above process in order to have a complete, ready to go backup. Every time there's a platform update, you have to get both hubs to the same level, again, I'd suggest a power off during that upgrade.
Obviously this is only possible if you also have non-Hub controlled remote AC Power switches.
Thanks, I realise about keeping both up to date with updates and also about the need to update when adding devices, I rarely add devices as I have my setup pretty much as I want nowadays and would not be keeping both hubs in sync but what I do want to be able to do is download the config to the "standby" hub if the "active" one dies then carry on as before but with the "standby" hub now being active. I do have non-habitat remote ac power switches already to reboot the Hubitat if it locks up or stops responding which is seems to do occasionally.
This is a sort of last resort option in case the active hubs completely goes offline where I would like to be able to bring up a second hub without needing to physically be on site.
Thanks, hadn't thought about only needing hub protect on the active hub and transferring to the backup one, I mainly wanted to ensure that the second hub would be bought up as the original without needing to physically do anything to either providing I have network access which it sounds like I can.
Thanks again.
I think your main issue will be that you need to be able to power off the failed hub if you're bringing the new one up as a replacement. The backup is fine remotely and the restore should be fine remotely. Consider having the primary hub on a smart outlet that the secondary hub controls, so you can forcibly take it down before restoring the backup. (But note that the secondary hub would no longer control that outlet after the restore!)
Thanks for your reply.
I already do this, because I have occasionally needed to reboot my Hubitat hubs after becoming unresponsive I now connect each one to an outlet controlled by Smartthings! (I changed from Smartthings when they stopped using 3rd party drivers, but in many years I have never yet had one lock up), so for my 3 Hubitat hubs I also have 3 Smartthings hubs, I have these plugged in via an outlet controlled by Hubitat so I can reboot these if necessary but have never yet had to.
Thanks
Are the switches on the SmartThings hub wifi? I came from SmartThings, and I still use HubiThings to pull in some wifi switches I use outside for range, but I realized the hub was no longer needed, so I unplugged it.
If you add a wifi plug to Smart Life, or Tuya Smart, or whatever app, and then add the Linked Service for the app in SmartThings, it will pull in switch devices via the cloud and no hub is necessary to access them. For that matter, you can just use wifi plugs and the phone app directly for this, and not even need smartThings, unless you want access to them from Hubitat via HubiThings.
If you are using SmartThings to control Zigbee or Zwave plugs, you might want to think about just using a wifi plug and losing the SmartThings hubs, since you are still using the cloud to control the Zigbee/Zwave plugs remotely via SmartThings anyway.
They are Zigbee switches, I must admit, I had thought about doing as you say and using wifi ones like the Tuya's the main reason I'm still using Smartthings and Zigbee to reboot Hubitat is that it's all kit I had lying around and once it was all setup I sort of forgot about it as that side of things has never yet gone wrong.
But you are right and the Tuya ones would probably be a better idea for the remote reboots as it would take the SmartThings hubs out of the equation.
The one other reason that I have them is that I also use a RPi to check if the Hubitat hub has locked up, if it has, it sends a web call to Sharptools that then tells Smartthings to turn of the Hubitat hub, wait 30 seconds then turn it back on, all sounds a bit OTT maybe but it does all seem to work ok, and the few times that one of my Hubitat hubs have locked up, it does the reboot and sends me a mail and by the time I've got the mail it's usually back up and running.
Do you know if you can control the Tuya wifi plugs from Sharptools?
Thanks
