REQUEST: "Slight" Change To Hubitat Policy

After being down back to "pre-automation" since Thursday solely because I decided to get the latest update as soon as it was released, causing 500 errors 5 hours later. I would like to suggest to Hubitat @patrick and @bravenel, if you could please slightly adjust Hubitat's (we do not give ETA's policy) in regards to updates.

Until the platform is able to give the users the ability to "select" whichever firmware version updates above that of what they are currently running. could you please post a "24 hours notice here on the forum" Example:---Update 2.2.0.xxx will be released tomorrow. Giving users who (now myself included) will NOT update until I don't see users posting major issues are not present (like 500 errors) Doing this will give the users the "choice" of updating to a higher firmware update than they are running BEFORE a new one is released.

The problem with the current UI is you have the notification that an update is available, but if you wait to see it there any issues caused and another update is released while you are waiting to see, you ONLY get the option to take the most recent update (not the one you were observing for issues). With "normal" updates coming around every 2 weeks, There is not preventive measure currently incorporated for users to use.

In the meantime my replacement hub should be here tomorrow, and hopefully be back up and going.

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I like this idea. I sat with .114 for some time and decided to go to 120, but 120 was gone before I could ug to it. I really like to let the more adventurous dl the latest version.....while I wait for an all clear signal.

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since getting my hub i've yet to update the firmware simply based on the user feedback with each release. Unless something amazing comes in the patch notes im not sure I will update it.

This doesn't make sense to me. The reason we push out hot fixes is to solve known bugs that are affecting a release just made. This is a standard practice after a major release. Most of these are very small and entail a small amount of change to the release. Generally we want to get these out as quickly as possible. You can expect almost daily hot fixes for the first few days after a major release, just based on history. We don't plan this any more than we plan to put out a release that has some issue. Sometimes these issues pop up because we missed something and a user discovers a problem. We want to correct those issues promptly. If you update to a new release, and encounter a problem, there is a very easy fix: roll back to previous release. Report the issue, and we will post when its fix is released.

Nothing is forcing your hand with respect to updates. You have three good options: (1) Don't update. (2) Wait until the hot fixes settle down before updating, and (3) try the update while being prepared to roll back if you encounter some difficulty. Generally speaking hot fix releases do not introduce new problems (nothing is perfect however). If you're watching 120, and 121 comes out, odds are relatively high that 121 is better than 120 in some significant way, and relatively low that 121 is going to break something that was in 120.

If the hub works for you, why update? If you've encountered some problem, and we've identified a bug, and that bug is holding you back, then update. If we introduce some new feature that you just have to have, then update.

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that is my thought process in regard to these software updates.

This was an unavailable option, when this hub locked up from this update, "Restoring a backup" repeatedly failed, and stayed on the 00
Screen for over 2 1/2 hours, and never did complete even after numerous "soft resets" , Then when trying to see if a "Factory Reset" may actually allow me to restore a backup, it blue lighted my hub.

Correct and #1 will be the option I choose, under the current process as I cannot afford to chance being down for 5 days because of installing an update. Because the "Restore the previous firmware" (fallback) was a failure for a "safety measure".

I didn't say restore your database, I said roll back the hub version.

Again, "restore" "roll back to the previous listed restore points" did not work in this circumstance.

And again, I'm not talking about "restore". Do you know how to roll back the hub platform software?

Other than selecting one of the links in the screenshot or the manually created backup that I do before each "NEW" version is released......then no I guess I don't.

Those are database backups, as in "backup" and "restore".

Your hub holds 3 prior versions of the hub platform software. These can be rolled back to in the event a new update is problematic for you -- without touching the database at all (see one caution below). You can find these by going to my-hub-ip:8081. At that address is a choice to roll back the hub platform to the previously installed release.

The one caution is that once in a blue moon when we make major database changes in a new release, we would caution in the release notes that rolling back must be accompanied by restoring the database to the prior release level. I think this has happened maybe twice in the history of the product, and we will always warn about it in the release announcement.

That brings up one more important point: Read the release announcement before updating. We include these release notes with the page that offers the update, and they are always posted here in the community.

So where does your database relate to when performing one of these updates to "previous" platform software? For example If I had already created Rule Machine 3.0 rules, and I decided to role back to when the platform software only used Rule Machine 2.5 rules, what happens to the database if you are NOT restoring your database to match the platform you are using? As you stated this has only been strongly encouraged on 2 occasions. I would assume this would cause errors, by having RM 3.0 rules in your database with a platform version that only supports RM 2.5?

This is why I actually performed the update that CAUSED the issues because the release notes it stated the NTP issue was fixed and the "event time" of the devices was fixed....."That" part was fixed, however it created an even bigger issue, at which I would now "prefer" to be able to wait and see approach on updates..

OK, obviously you can't use something introduced in a release if you roll back to a prior release. But, we were discussing hot fix releases. There is no perfection to be had. We do our best, and perhaps sometimes that's not going to be good enough.

We're very sorry you had the problem you encountered. Hopefully your new hub will run forever with no issues.

So I'm guessing that's' a NO on a day prior notice, even with just "normal" releases (doesn't even have to include) "hotfix releases"?

Are you saying you want a list of updates to update to? As in:

  • I am on release 123
  • there was a release 124
  • the latest release is 125

And now you want to updater to let you select either release 124 or 125?

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Exactly, or until then someone from HE to say Release 125 is coming tomorrow, therefore if I haven't observered any issues of concern I have the ability to go ahead and choose 124 BEFORE 125 comes out that "may" introduce new problems to watch for.

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I am sure that it is not a simple undertaking but I see @bravenel hitting the keyboard, so give him a moment to reply

I'm just chilling on Father's Day watching the US Open. Heard from my kids, bugs are out of Rule Machine, platform is solid.

I don't know what else to say...

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Happy Father's Day

I've read all the replies above and don't see why just waiting a day or few (or never) to update isn't possible for you. If you do update, you can roll back to the previous firmware (a bit harder to find than the database backup/restore you did find above but possible in any case and sometimes advisable to take the old database with you too; it will make a backup but it's advisable for you to do the same and download it somewhere else).

If you have questions on any of the above, I'm sure anyone here would be happy to provide additional clarification. Or if the red notification on the top right corner of the admin UI bothers you, maybe you're asking for just the ability to "snooze" that update notification for a period of time? Maybe that's something they'd consider. But the existing problem isn't clear to me when the timing on all of this is in your control.