I know this has been touched on in various posts, but I wanted to put down my thoughts on an upgrade process from C-7 to C-8 where I can move my devices, rules, and other built-in apps to C-8 but keep the heavy-hitting cloud apps on the C-7. Appreciate any feedback and answers to the questions below. Hopefully the steps (and responses) will be helpful to others planning to do the same thing.
My Intended Process:
Bring the C-8 online and update the firmware to the latest version. (Added per danabw's suggestion.)
Temporarily disable cloud apps I’m keeping on the C-7 to avoid conflict when the C-8 initially fires up. (Moved up per Bobby’s suggestion below.)
Complete a cloud backup of the C-7
Reset Z-Wave, Zigbee, and remove from the C-7 all rules, etc. except for the cloud apps I plan to run on the C-7. This will remove any Z-Wave and Zigbee devices but not the devices for the cloud apps. Turn off Zigbee and Z-Wave radios (to reduce noise).
Restore the C-8 from the C-7 cloud backup
Enable hub mesh on both devices and share any devices and variables that are needed for the other hub.
Update apps on both hubs where needed to point to the new meshed devices on the other hub (doing this first will prevent breaking on the next step?)
Remove from the C-8 any apps and devices I’m keeping on the C-7
Re enable the cloud apps I’m keeping on the C-7
Questions and Thoughts:
If ensure I don’t have devices or apps duplicated between the hubs, is there a reason I can’t keep on the C-7 the apps that I plan to run there and avoid a reset that will require me to reinstall them? I assume this may also prevent any IP address updates I need to do by moving them to the new C-8.
I use Homebridge Hubitat v2. This sends all most ALL of my devices to Homebridge, so I would think this is a heavy-hitter app I should move to the C-8 since keeping it on the C-7 with my devices moved to the C-8 would require me to hub mesh all of them. Is this the right thinking? I’m assuming hub mesh does take up some processing power and may slightly slow response times, so that’s why I’m thinking it’s better to keep on same hub.
I would move this item at the top. Disable cloud apps before the migration, then create the cloud backup. That way, your cloud integrations wouldn't go crazy when you restore the backup on the C-8.
There's no way to actually turn off the Zigbee radio; when you set Zigbee to 'Disabled' and its network state shows OFFLINE, the hub continues broadcasting every few seconds to the 'All Routers' 0xFFFC address on whatever PAN ID and radio channel it was previously configured with (at the application layer Zigbee is effectively disabled however).
It's not a lot of traffic (and probably matters little) but if you want to eliminate it as an interference source, all you can do is set the non-Zigbee hub to a different channel than the ones you intend using elsewhere prior to 'disabling'.
FWIW, Ogiewon has a nice set of steps that worked perfectly for me...Only thing I'd add (that he has now added!) is you can do a FW update on the C-8 first if you want to avoid having to take a backup and do it again after the migration. Just a timing issue, either way works.
@bobbyD - Any thoughts on this? Will meshing almost all of my devices on the C-8 back to the C-7 nullify any gains I make by keeping the chatty Homebridge app on the C-7? Thx!
As many of you, I am waiting for the C8 arrival and currently owing a C7.
Also, I would like the opportunity of the increase range of C8 to eliminate 3 IKEA Zigbee repeaters which are dropping from time to time causing an unwanted chain reaction in my Zigbee mesh.
Could you please let me know if you recommend taking the IKEA repeaters before or after migration from current C7 to new C8. Thank you
Not sure that it matters, as your Zigbee mesh will adjust either way, but I would do the removal beforehand on the C-7 so your mesh is building fresh without the repeaters when you bring the C-8 online.
