I starting “playing around” with Home Assistant 2-3 years ago, trying out a bunch of integrations, devices, automations and so on. The plan has always been to do a “proper” installation once I’ve experimented enough. But that “constant beta” was somehow good enough so I kept using it and growing it.
But now I have some free time and really, REALLY want to start clean with a fresh install of HA. How many of you have done that and what are your experiences with the process? How should I best go about preparing and pulling it through?
I’ve starting collecting my devices and corresponding integrations per room in an ever-growing list. I’m trying to collect passwords, logins, APIs and stuff where needed, I’m trying to identify existing redundancies and anticipate future automations and control devices. But I’m sure I’m still overlooking plenty of things, so I would really appreciate your collective input.
@fleskefjes asks the right question, because it makes a difference.
Until some 6 months ago I had been running HA as a front for my Universal Devices Eisy Integration, meaning that all my devices were on the Eisy.
For a variety of reasons I decided to move everything to HA (and have never looked back). It took me some 10 days to exclude the devices from Eisy and include in HA, as well as to rewrite the Eisy Programs into HA Automations.
As you write, you have plenty of time, so it seems like you have nice project on your hands. Enjoy !
Always a good feeling starting from scratch. I did so my self when I moved three years ago. I would document what you have now (integrations, automations, everything) before you shut down the old installation. I would start setting up backup, then do integrations / addons and then automations. Look into using Mushroom cards, a great opportunity to start with a new, fresh GUI. Don’t use SD card as your storage on the Pi. Use a naming scheme on your devices.
Maybe it would be easier to back up the configuration, blow everything away to reinstall the preferred setup, then partially or fully restore the pieces you had backed up before?