I am migrating from HAOS on a Pi to HAOS on a VM. As part of it, I am also migrating ZWave to a new dongle. The current one is old and does not support migration (HUS-BZB1), and the new one is an 800 series. The Pi uses ZJS, and I would like to use ZJS UI on the new host, which also adds complexity. I assume that I’ll have to re-pair all devices which I have accepted. Here are my questions:
What is the best way to do this, knowing that I could run the Pi and the new device in parallel? For example, should I leave the Pi running while I pair and un-pair devices on the new system or is it better to shutdown the Pi and just deal with the new system?
What will happen to entity names when I pair the new devices? Asked another way, what happens to my recovered automations when their current entities are missing and I then re-pair? Can I pair the zwave devices on the new 800 and match the entity names of the previous (now recovered) devices?
The entire process starts with recovering a backup from my Pi to my new VM. Does that change anything?
Interesting question. I would think you could use your criteria (change Z-wave controller and add-on) to your advantage during the migration.
I think this should be possible, anyone else can chime in:
Start with recovering the back from your PI to new VM. This should restore the existing Z-wave add-on and database. You will need to move the old physical controller (HUS-BZB1) to the VM and change the z-wave add-on config to its new serial path. Everything should work normally at this point.
Insert the new 800 series controller and note the serial path. The System > Hardware > All hardware menu option should show it to you.
Install the Z-wave JS UI add-on and configure it to the new 800 series controller. You’ll need to generate new security keys, etc. and enter the new serial path. Make sure the controller is healthy, and everything looks normal via the UI of Z-wave JS UI before moving on.
Install a second instance of the Z-wave integration. Point the WebSocket path to ws://a0d7b954-zwavejs2mqtt:3000 which will be the new Z-wave JS UI add-on.
Now you can start excluding devices from your old controller and include them in the new. You’ll likely hurt the performance of the mesh as you dismantle it, but if you make sure to move some mains powered devices first you should be OK.
When you include z-wave devices in the new controller they will reappear in Home Assistant through the second integration. They may even keep the same name, but if not just name the devices and entities as they were originally and all your automations should work. Maybe take some screen shots of the original integration before you begin migration to reference as you go forward.
Essentially, you’ll have 2 z-wave mesh networks for a while, but that shouldn’t be a problem depending on the number of devices and their hop counts.
Once everything is migrated you can remove the original integration and original add-on.