Thread - Two Border Routers --Follow the leader?

Configuration Matter/Thread
1

I have a SLZB-MR1U set up in thread mode, which HA is controlling via the OTBR Add-on. If I understand correctly the actual OTBR software runs in HA and the SLZB-MR1U is just acting as the radio(etc).

I have a ZBT-2 I got as a backup. It’s installed on a Raspberry Pi running ubuntu where I did a native (source) install of OTBR. I added it via the rest API to HA.

When I look in HA I see one preferred network and both devices.

If I access their web interface, it looks ALMOST like what I expect. The HA one shows the first topology below. Note it shows both a leader (itself) and router (the ZBT-2).

The second toplogy is from the ZBT2 one (or more precisely the OTBR software on that rPi). Notice it sees both but there is no “leader” shown.

Should it show the other as the leader? It correctly identifies where they are connected. I just don’t know if the “leader” aspect is important?

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2

I have basically the same setup (2 OTBR) and I also notice desyncs in the visualisation, from time to time. Not sure why, but they appear to resync at some point.

3

I just pulled the battery in a smoke to see how long until it went unavailable (surprisingly around 10 minutes was all it took).

I put the battery back in the other end of the house, and it connected to the other (closer) router. So they are sharing the load and presumably will fail over, so I guess it’s all OK.

Thanks for the “me too”, good to know it’s not unexpected.

4

That topology map feature is pretty unstable.
Press the reload and you might get more or fewer devices shown.