Any advice for a New User of a 'Home Assistant: Green'?

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Hello all

I Hope you are Well.

I have just Ordered a ‘Home Assistant: Green’ from PiHut in the UK.

Not the Best Time to Order it due to the Holidays, but…

Do you have any advice for a New User of Home Assistant on the ‘Home Assistant: Green’ ?

My initial reason for the Purchase is so that I can use the ‘MyVaillant’ integration as the MyVaillant App is, well, not very Good :frowning:

However, in the Future, I would also like to Add ‘Philips Hue’ Bulbs to it too.

I also use Plex and a Ring Doorbell which I believe are also supported by Home Assistant.

Thanks for any Advice offered.

Kevin

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Get your Green working well and updated before you start adding integrations and devices. Take a backup snapshot you can rollback to, and then start adding things.

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You’re starting off at the deep end since that integration requires HACS to be installed. Good Luck!

Follow @IOT7712’s advice and spend a couple of days getting familiar with HA (including backups downloaded to your PC or anywhere off the Green) before starting with HACS & custom integrations.

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Learn where backup is on day 1.

Set it up to get your backup off box automatically and copy your encryption keys. If yih have that you can undo anything you can do with a keyboard. Then IMMEDIATELY back up and restore your box before you put anything on it. Congrats you just did a disaster exercise. Keep doing that quarterly.

Backups can’t fix it if you get frustrated and take a sledgehammer to it but they sure save your bacon by letting you restore a good config to anything that runs ha.

The single biggest thing people mess up is not knowing backup exists.

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Hello all

Thanks for the Replies, it is appreciated.

I am familiar with Terminal / SSH so I am hoping I should not have any issues with getting HACS Setup, famous last words :slight_smile:

I keep all of my Device Backups on my Synology DS925 and then the NAS is Backed Up Nightly so Backups will not be an issue.

According to Royal Mail I should recieve it on Saturday :slight_smile:

Thanks

Kevin

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Um, maybe get a coin battery too…

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Hello @IOT7712

Thanks for the Tip.

I have a Double Pack of Batteries on Order from Amazon :slight_smile:

Kevin

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Hello all

Well, I recieved my Home Assistant Green this Morning along with the Sonoff Zigbee USB Adapter and a USB Extension Cable.

Everything is Setup and working well.

First thing I did was to add my Synology Nas which was Automatically Discovered and then I Setup Automatic Backups to it.

Next, HACS, easier than it was made out to be :slight_smile:

HACS is working fine and then I Installed the MyVaillant Integration which is also Setup as I want it, for the most part.

I have been playing with the Plex Integration but have not really managed to do anything with it, yet.

I will be Posting on the Forum looking for Help with that :slight_smile:

Thanks

Kevin

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Great!

Now back it up. And save your encryption key. (or turn backup encryption off)

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Hello

Backup was the First thing I did :slight_smile:

Automatic Backups are setup for every 3 Days.

I have Saved the Encryption Key, however, how would I Turn Off Backup Encryption as there is only me who has access.

Thanks in advance

Kevin

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It’s in the backup settings (scroll to the bottom) look in the backup locations, there should be a config gear icon where you can go in and turn on/off encryption per destination.

You will not be able to turn off the toggle for Nabu Casa as they dot store unencrypted backups

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Hello

Found it :slight_smile:

I store the Backups on my Synology Nas.

Thanks

Kevin

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