Lets get two things understood right outta the box…
I love HA
I hate working on HA.
I’m a software engineer… and hardware HATES ME! And I’m ok with that! That said… did i say I hate working on HA?
I’m standing up a new instance of HA on a second box a Wyse 5070 and I have an existing instance on a Pi3 up and running.
I know I could restore from a back up to teh new instance but I’m thinking I’d like a clean slate.
Q1 - Can I have both up and running as long as I access them via their IP address (with dedicated static Ip’s set on my router) vs not using Homeassistan.local
I have the existing devices on a USB Aeotec Z-Stick gen 5 …
Q2 - What the best way to migrate my small number 15 or so of Z-Wave devices to the new devices
Q2a Can you have two Gen 5 sticks ( on different machines of course) running side by side addressing the same devices
Yes you can have two HA installs side by side - give each unique names and ip addresses.
No.You cannot in the way you hope/think. You can technically setup a second coordinator like you’re about to do a process known as a controller shift. But it’s an advanced configuration and it won’t get you exactly what you’re hoping (technical reasons, there’s limitations to what secondary controllers can do) so ignore it.
Usually you just move the stick. It contains the network. This is a cutover not a migration.
setup a new instance of ZWaveJS or JsUI move the stick - use your existing encryption keys (in JS or JsUI config files) so it can open the stick and see the network. Connect, pull them in, and voila.
(All that said Id honestly just do the backup and restore. The way HA restores it’s really a reinstall - it will clear out most of your trash. You’re about to find out exactly how many tiny details you have configured over the years, what you want to clear out are likely a bunch of old automations and dashboards that are easy to just delete. If you do THAT then they can’t be side by side until you rename and re-ip one of them.)
I guess the other option with regards to the stick is to do a factory reset… let the stick rediscover the nodes… that would break the first instance’s automations etc… but allow me to rename devices and entities… one time …giving them more meaningful names BEFORE building automations in the new environment using them…
The process of renaming things in HA seem’s fraught with “Gotcha’s” that I’m trying to avoid… cuz… I hate working on HA LOL
Just thought of something… renaming devices and entities in HA is local to HA… those changes ARE NOT pushed back to the stick are they?
Internal to HA there must be a “pointer” back to the controllers list of devices… using GUUIDS or some hash value… I’m guessing. I could do a finial back up of my existing instance then experiment on naming things to get the “Jist” of how to rename things in the new instance.
Thanks for all your insights
The node names are not written to the stick unless you specifically did it with something like ZWave JSUI.
Integrations are that ‘pointer’ back to the stick that translates entity to whatever the stick does.
I understand you ‘hate working on HA’ and also believe you’re making a lot of unnecessary work for yourself. There is nothing fraught about renaming anything. (especially since the most recent version updates in 2024 and work to retain LTS data when entities are renamed It should just work?
Rename a device, HA should offer to rename all the entities with it too. If you’re starting over you just make one last backup, blow away your automations (you created) make a new dashboard and rock and roll without having to reconfigure your integrations. (read : less time working in HA.)