ZHA with the Conbee II coordinator provides me with a very satisfactory link from lights to HA but I am stumped when it comes to backup of the coordinator. My configuration comprises a Nuc, ZHA and Conbee II as the operational HA system and a second Nuc, ZHA and Conbee II as the backup system. HA snapshots enable me to transfer full system configs between Nucs but so far I cannot transfer any of the Conbee II firmware from the operational Conbee II to the backup Conbee II.
My testing has confirmed my strong suspicion that the zigbee pairing process must include a two way exchange of device hardware IDs, or more likely, firmware IDs. I have looked at Phoscon but that seems to require the building of the zigbee config in Phoscon rather than in ZHA.
So is my understanding of the situation correct? Is there any other coordinator whose firmware can be simply copied from one unit to another. I donât need the two coordinators to be active at the same time.
Hope someone has a good solution. Please!
If you use Zigbee2MQTT, you can replace a CCxxxx stick with another CCxxxx stick, and nothing has to be re-paired. Donât know if it works with conbee sticks though.
FrancisP, thanks for your approach to a solution. I have been using zigbee for only a few months and thought that I was choosing the most promising path with ZHA and an established second generation Conbee and so far I have been very pleased with the performance of the combination. I had the impression that Zigbee2MQTT was not on the most favoured list for ongoing development. Additionally, I have found MQTT (in the context of appdaemon) a bit more fiddly and difficult to debug.
But I need a solution to my current backup problem and your suggestion does not require having to burn too many bridges. Can you point me to a suitable CCxxxx off the shelf product that already has lots of happy customers!
Depends where you live
I have one of these :
but import costs in Europe were high. Just put yourself on the waiting list, in a day or 2 you can have one.
Otherwise, look here :
Just donât buy a CC2531 or CC2530, they are not worth your time and money.
it is in /Share/Zigbee2mqtt/
in a file called database.db
I do not concur, my CC2531 works perfectly now for more than a yearâŚ
Donât forget to copy the .json too. There are 2 in Zigbee2mqtt 1.21
How many devices do you have ?
Just one CC2531âŚ(hosted on W10 :P)
With one Zigbee device the CC2531 will work fine. If you reach more then 20 it becomes a problem.
LOL.misunderstood your questionâŚthought the amount of CC2531âs 
I have 7 ZigBee devices onlyâŚthat is maybe why I donât have any issues;)
FrancisP, Thanks for that info on coordinators. I have looked through some of the devices and note that they say they work on either Zigbee2MQTT or on ZHA. And from what you have said I gather that that these coordinators are either not tightly linked to the lights (Philips Hue) or Zigbee2MQTT is able reprogram the CCxxxx firmware with the pairing links. So either ZHA or the Conbee does not have that reprogramming functionality.
I seem to be missing something. As I understand, there can be only one coordinator in a Zigbee network. So the backup coordinator has to be reprogrammed with some linkage code which in intended to prevent hijacking of devices from a network.
If Zigbee2MQTT can do this reprogramming of the coordinator maybe ZHA can also do it and I just donât know how to drive it.
It works as follows : if you stop Zigbee2MQTT, it creates a backup of your network to the configuration directory. If you start Zigbee2MQTT again, and it detects another adapter, it restores the network to the new adapter.
So if you want to start on a backup installation, be sure to copy the configuration files regularly.
it might :
Thanks, FrancisP. You have been a great help to me. My horizons have been widened and I have a bit of reading to do.
ZHA supports ConBee/RaspBee adapters natively via their deconz serial protocol interface, but do not think there is any backup or restore tools available yet via the deconz serial protocol interface so probably have to do backup and restore via deCONZ GUI. I also do not believe there is a migration path from a ConBee/RaspBee adapter to a Zigbee coordinator from other manufacturers.
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/zha-migrate-existing-network-to-new-coordinator/284636/9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql58ZfXso1M&ab_channel=EverythingSmartHome
Please consider voting for a backup feature in ZHA UI here:
I am lost. I have 48 devices paired with this Conbee II adapter using ZHA (after several issues using DeconZ) and now I found out that we cannot backup it 
.
This is a major issue, itâs simply not practical to repair everything if I have to migrate to another stick, it will take days ! Alternatively, is there a way to migrate from ZHA to Zigbee2MQQT ? I get â502: Bad Gatewayâ when trying to access Zigbee2MQQT 
Your conclusion on backup of the Zigbee setup is correct, however I think the problem is not that big.
You have a backup system, if the main system breaks then reinstall your on the backup system and move the conbee stick to the backup system. Then it will all work, as the conbee is the same, hence the Zigbee network will not even know it have been moved to a new system.
If the conbee fails, then you end i problems, however all mentioning of system failures are on SD cards and configuration. Not the conbee stick:-)
Just my thoughts. I live with the risk on my ZHA/Conbee setup, beeing very easy to handle.
I have enjoyed the hobby of building a control system to improve the functionality of my home but I do not want to have a system which has me as an indispensible component for the next twenty years. So I would like my system to be isolated from the ever increasing threats of the internet, from lightning strikes and from my own (unscheduled) demise. Thinking like this tends to increase with advancing years. The development of HA is indeed amazing and I have appreciated most of its advances. These may go on for decades to come but I want to choose my time to cut loose and move to other challenges.
Hence my system should be duplicated, protected by UPS from power surges and cut off from the internet. One manual two pole switch should be able to transfer control from one system to an identical backup system.
Fortunately, there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel using non deconz coordinators and ZHA. I am hoping to get a solution there over the coming year.
zigpy developers are apparently working on deconz backup and there is a draft pull request for it here:
https://github.com/zigpy/zigpy-cli/pull/2
At least that is how I interpret answer from puddly when posted this feature request for zigpy-deconz:
https://github.com/zigpy/zigpy-deconz/issues/177
Started separate forum discussion thread on zigpy-deconz / zigpy-cli backup of ConBee/RaspBee here:
Note! Understand that zigpy and the zigpy-deconz radio libraries which ZHA depends on are all free and open-source library with only volunteering developers working on them without pay so remember and you and anyone else are also are more than welcome to code the feature for it (the zigpy developers have so far been more than happy to help and other volenteering developers who are willing to step in to assist with helping to fix bugs or add features).
FYI, testers have confirmed that testing patches mentioned in pull request work with ConBee/RaspBee: