I just had a first ever incident where my hub went off line. I've been a two year user and this hasn't happened before.
I noticed some of my scheduled morning rules hadn't run and then when I pressed some scene buttons in the home nothing happened. Something was a amiss. I then went into the Hubitat iphone app and it couldn't reach the hub. So at my PC browser I entered the hub IP address and got this screen below where it was stuck.
I tried a few power rebooting cycles but it always returned to this page and stuck at 20%.
So then I entered 10.x.x.xxx:8081 and then entered my MAC address to get to the diagnostic tool
From here I was able to download to my PC the most recent backup "Download backups".
The after a reboot I entered the diagnostic tool again and selected the "Soft reset" option. It has some extra confirming steps after the button press but then reboots.
So there is some obligatory info you have to enter before the unit pops up live. Once you get a live GUI then you go to settings.
The unit comes back looking like a new virgin unit but all the Zwave and radio related stuff is still in the database. It went through an automatic system software update so I had to roll this back (via :8081 diagnostic screen) to n-1 rev to match my backup revision.
Then navigate to settings, then "Backup and Restore". Here you use the Upload local backup and restore to hub section. You'll be prompted to locate ("+ Choose" button) the backup file on your PC, it will upload to the hub and then you press "Restore" button.
After another reboot you should see your familiar friend again. Test a few devices, run a few rules and ensure everything is working ok.
Then exhale, as you just adverted a massive problem and days of restoring your system.
Thanks to bobbyD for guidance through this outage.
The ability to restore from a backup is what originally brought me to Hubitat. I've never needed it for an unresponsive hub but I'm very happy it is available. With Hub Protect and/or Cloud backup you can recover your z-wave and ZigBee radios as well. A real "Get out of jail free" card."
Thanks for the write up. I changed the title to reflect the significance of recovering from a blue light, which is the boogeyman lurking in the community.
In a database corruption situation you do not need to worry about the radios. A Soft Reset and restoring a local backup gets you back online. Where Hub Protect comes handy, is if you are dealing with a hardware malfunction. That's when you need to restore radio functionality. Having cloud backups is a time-saver. Having Hub Protect is a wallet saver on top of being able to get your home back working in 10 minutes or less: Hub Protect and Cloud Backup | Hubitat Documentation
No, but at first I thought it was a little cheesy to separate hub radio backup into a bundle called Hub Protect and that local backups were missing important radio backup information. It is covered in the online documentation but it wreaks of burying the headline.
When I look at the annualized expense to have this functionality (full and complete backup) and the safety net it provides, I have no problem with it. As someone else said in a related thread, Hubitat needs to pay the bills. I find the value and enjoyment I get from the platform far exceeds the annual subscription expense. If the cost of Hub Protect is a deal breaker then you should probably avoid HA all together.
It does look "cheesy" without knowing the background. Local backups have been a core part of the Hubitat Elevation platform since day one.
Cloud backups were introduced years later alongside Hub Protect, which expanded on that foundation. We invested significant time and resources into making the extended warranty truly valuable by including radio backups as part of the service. After all, protection isn’t really protection if users can’t fully restore their system when they need it most.
