Can @support_team or somebody in the know please list all the things that stop working when the hub loses it's cloud connection?
From what I noticed when this happened to me it's at least:
Integrations such as IFTTT are broken
Cloud backups are broken
Notifications tab in the (old) iOS app are broken
I didn't do a deep dive into what was broken when I was in this state, these are simply what I bumped into.
Can you also let us know if anything is in the works to prevent/limit/auto-resolve this issue or in the very least notify in some very obvious way to users when our hub is in this state in a proactive manner (header bar or popup in the Hub UI for example)?
Understand that Hubitat is a local control focused hub, i.e. it’s primary directive is to provide a central control and automation facility for local devices utilizing Zwave, Zigbee, and Matter. Communicating with the cloud and apps/devices therein is a distant secondary consideration.
The hub primary UI is via a locally connected (WiFi, ethernet) web browser. The mobile app was developed to provide a second UI option, and when working correctly is also local first, cloud second. Cloud backups are a relatively new item, but, while a good to have and additionally providing radio backups that the local backup doesn’t, are again secondary to the primary mission.
Sure of course I understand all that but I would still like to know what doesn't work when this happens because it appears this silently fails unless we run into something in the list I'm asking for. I want these things on my radar until it's fixed.
More to the heart of the matter, some of us are paying for cloud backups which don't work then this happens and that's simply not ok.
It's only a matter of time before someone gets completely hosed because they REALLY need a certain cloud backup which they assume are faithfully running on their schedule but they aren't because this has silently failed. They might also for some reason have local backups disabled so cloud is the only option.
Cloud backups, hub registration, hub firmware updates, and remote access are pretty much the only HE functions that should not operate normally. Non-HE, anything that requires an internet connection.
NTP is one of those 'hidden' services that don't work without Internet, unless of course you have a handy home Cesium (aka Caesium) clock. Most of us don't and so without internet, the hub's clock will drift, probably significantly. A local NTP server can overcome a lot of that because for most, an NTP server will update its battery backed RTC and thus drift very little.
DNS of course. Without Internet, if you're using an App that queries named resources, it won't find them. HPM, for example, checks for new Packages but without Internet, it will never detect any.
Understand what you mean but isn't that a bit of an exaggeration given that, among other things, some of HE's revenue streams depend on this connection?
Don't forget built-in HE functions like dashboards, MakerAPI, cloud endpoint triggers in RM, etc. They all offer a form of remote access to the hub via HE's cloud platform.
If you run @thebearmay 's Hub Information Driver v3 ([RELEASE] Hub Information Driver v3) it can show when the hub has lost cloud connectivity. You could build a rule to turn on / flash a light when that attribute goes to 'disconnected'. From what you posted, it sounds like sending a notification to the mobile app wouldn't work while the cloud is disconnected, but you might be able to send a notification by other means (Pushover, email to SMS, etc).
As far as NTP and DNS, I've found that when I lose cloud connectivity, I'm not losing all network connectivity. I set up a flow on Node Red that calls http://hubitat.home.lan/hub2/hubData every 5 minutes and notifies me if the data returned shows the cloud is disconnected. That process has been working, so even when the cloud is disconnected, that endpoint is still responding on the LAN. I assume (but could be wrong) that NTP and DNS would still be working also.
In addition to the monitoring via Node Red, I've set up a rule that reboots the hub if the cloud shows disconnected, as reboots have been fixing the issue for me.
