Understanding data generation (Recorder, Logbook, History, Energy)

[tom_l]

@AleXSR7001

From my understanding there is one central database homeassistant_database_v2 which is used by all built in integrations to store data.

All integrations and devices store their states here, not just core integrations.

@AleXSR7001

Recorder records all states etc. of all domains, entities etc.
You can adjust this by setting the include and exclude filters.

Correct.

@AleXSR7001

Logbook logs all info and error messages

No. The system log is where errors and warnings are written (config/home-assistant.log)

The Logbook integration displays state changes read from the recorder database. So does the History integration, but in a different way (graphs rather than text).

@AleXSR7001

if I exclude a domain in Recorder, this will not exclude the same domain from Logbook, correct?

Yes but no.

If you exclude an entity or domain from the recorder it wont be excluded from the Logbook or History integrations but once the recorder purge time passes (keep_days) there will be no data for the Logbook or History to read from the recorder database. So essentially yes you have excluded them from these integrations too.

If you want to use History or Logbook for an item it must exist in the Recorder database

@AleXSR7001

say I wanted to disable the Recorder. Is thta even possible? And if it is, would History and Logbook stop working because they use Recorder?

Yes it is possible. Yes it would prevent them displaying anything.

@AleXSR7001

Also, are there any other built-in default integrations or core components writing to the database?

All of them. Custom ones too, via the Recorder integration.

@AleXSR7001

P.S.: Ist it actually possible to disable a specific default integration? default_config: will load all of the above and I can include/exclude, but docs do not specify an “unload” command. So is there something like

No it is not. It’s a package deal. See:

Why the heck is default_config so difficult to customize?

As it is if you want to remove a single integration from default_config: (History, Map, logbook, etc), you need to remove default_config: and manually add every other included integration EXCEPT the one you would like to get rid of. The most obvious solution to me would be to add the option to exclude entries from default_config: in the configuration. Example: default_config: exclude: - Map But knowing how default_config works, that’s not really viable. I suggest we go back to the way …