What is the recommended development/upgrade flow including staging instance?

Configuration
1

I’ve been using Home Assistant for 6 years.

My setup evolved from Supervisor to separated Docker containers 3 years ago.
My mindset also changed from keeping upgrading on every version to upgrading from time to time (usually when I get a new device, or a new integration that was not available before, etc).

But upgrades are a big pain and require some tinkering time:
- If you built that beautiful dashboard with custom components you also need to upgrade those custom components.
- Sometimes YAML requires changes (e.g. templates location changes, deprecated integrations or changes from yaml to UI)

Question:

  • Is there a way to create a read only Staging instance where I start a HA instance pointing to the Production database/mqtt/nodered/zwave-js and production configuration to check behavior ?
    This way the production instance running the old version would keep running with no downtime and I would have time/opportunity to test the new version in a staging environment having the same production integrations.

thank you in advance

2

You can create another instance, but things like zigbee likely won’t be connected. There is a way to connect a remote zwave, I’ve done that. I’ve not pulled in my automations because they would change things and mess with the house. So basically the best way to solve your problem is just keep your stuff up to date.