Hello,
I would like to configure HA (+ Z-Wave in Docker GitHub - zwave-js/zwave-js-ui: Full featured Z-Wave Control Panel UI and MQTT gateway. Built using Nodejs, and Vue/Vuetify ) on a temporary machine.
Later I want to transfer HA to another machine. Is it possible to do this without re-pairing all the Z-Wave devices? Is it enough to make a backup of the HA?
// update: Or do I need to do a backup in the zwave-js web UI?
Thanks for the answer!
Yes. Because the ZWave network is stored on the stick. It will take a bit of time to get the network fully running again on another machine, because it will have to requery the entire network, which will lead to sleeping devices taking a while to show up. But I’ve done it countless times. It works fine.
Wow.
Because the ZWave network is stored on the stick
Yes, that’s the way the ZWave system works - the stick is the controller. All the software that talks to ZWave is not talking ZWave directly, it’s talking to the ZWave controller over serial and the controller is doing all the stuff.
It’s on of ZWaves biggest downsides. A broken stick, means repairing - everything again.
Zigbee meanwhile the stick is just a radio, the config files are super important for the network. ZWave config files are mostly just cache to speed up the network once it’s all been queried.
And opposite question. How difficult is migrate whole Z-Wave network from one USB Z-Wave stick to another (different, newer from 500 to 700) USB Z-Wave stick?
One thing to make sure you do whenever moving the zstick is to make sure you make note of the zwave security keys. If you don’t have the keys on the new machine, you will be unable to communicate with any S0 or S2 security devices. More info on security keys below.
If you aren’t using S0 or S2 security you don’t really need to worry about this though.
Just keep a backup of the NVRAM and you can restore the entire mesh onto a new stick.
There are (2) ways you can migrate from one USB to another.
The first is the NVM backup method. You simply backup the NVM from one controller and restore it to another controller. Whether or not you can do this is dependent on the firmware of the controllers. You have to do research first. You can brick your controller this way. But this is the easiest method.
The second method involves including the new controller as a secondary controller then promoting it to the primary controller. This is the safest method and will work regardless of the firmware. This is the more difficult method.
Is it possible to create such a backup from one stick to another with the Silicon Labs tool?
From my perspective this should be one of the fey features.
Thank you.
Second question if the above is not possible.
I guess the risk of your method 1 is pretty low, if I have the same stick (manufacturer / model)?
Yes you can perform the backup using the Silicon Labs tool but this feature is also available in Z-Wave JS UI.
As long as your devices are the same the NVM backup and restore is the safest option. If you try to nvm backup and restore to another device you might have problems.