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What happens if your gateway dies and has to be replaced? From what I've read, this theoretically can be done, but in practice you end up unlinking and migrati

What happens if your gateway dies and has to be replaced? From what I've read, this theoretically can be done, but in practice you end up unlinking and migrating every device one by one. But it's been a few years since I looked into it, maybe someone has made improvements? Otherwise, this is a huge advantage of wifi-based smarthome devices.

LeafItAlone 3y ago
I just replaced my Ikea hub (changed from Tradfri to Dirigera). It was annoying to do, but not hard. Took about ~90 seconds for each device. I did them individually, but I could have done them in parallel to speed it up. Not something I want to do once a month, but once every two years is “reasonable” (compared to non-smart home items).
Klathmon 3y ago
So for zigbee this is very possible and I've recently done it multiple times without any issues whatsoever. I used to use a ConbeeII as my zigbee coordinator, but my server rack is located at an awful position in the house for coverage, so I picked up a TubeZB PoE EFR32 based coordinator [1] which has been incredible! I use home assistant, and it was trivial to backup the network, unplug the ConbeeII, put in the IP address of the new coordinator, and import the backup there and everything just continued to work. Then I had that die, it was actually the PoE portion which died, so I did the reverse and transferred everything back to my ConbeeII while I diagnosed and fixed it, then when it was fixed transferred everything back to the TubeZB coordinator. It actually took longer to get the IP address assigned on the TubeZB coordinator than it did to transfer my network each time, it was incredibly simple. I'm not sure for z-wave though. I do use it, but I've never had a z-wave gateway die on me, or had any reason to replace it where I wasn't also moving or something. [1] https://tubeszb.com/product/efr32-mgm21-poe-coordinator/ https://tubeszb.com/product/efr32-mgm21-poe-coordinator/
- wlesieutre 3y ago
  Good to know! One of the more specific things I was wondering is that when you relinked everything if HA would forget what's what or if it would hook the devices back up to all their automations afterward. I have some Hue bulbs which are Zigbee, but I've been considering getting out of Hue's ecosystem for controlling them.
  - Klathmon 3y ago
    The names seemed to reset for some of my zigbee devices (interestingly not all of them, just some of them, it's likely something else going on and unrelated but I don't know for sure), but they still work in their original automations and in my UI everywhere that I have them.
mannyv 3y ago
I believe the re-pair process is a side effect of how security was implemented. I also heard it was technically possible to migrate without pairing, but i think right now it's between hubs from the same manufacturer. It's been years since i checked.
alistairSH 3y ago
Zwave devices definitely seem to be "sticky" - you have to unpair/pair each device. At least that's been my experience using Zwave with a Smartthings hub.
rlpb 3y ago
AIUI, at protocol level, Z-Wave supports multiple controllers and if you have two and one dies then you can switch to the other and replace the first. I can't see consumers arranging that though, and nor do I know how to do it.

LeafItAlone 3y ago

I just replaced my Ikea hub (changed from Tradfri to Dirigera). It was annoying to do, but not hard. Took about ~90 seconds for each device. I did them individually, but I could have done them in parallel to speed it up. Not something I want to do once a month, but once every two years is “reasonable” (compared to non-smart home items).

Klathmon 3y ago

So for zigbee this is very possible and I've recently done it multiple times without any issues whatsoever. I used to use a ConbeeII as my zigbee coordinator, but my server rack is located at an awful position in the house for coverage, so I picked up a TubeZB PoE EFR32 based coordinator [1] which has been incredible! I use home assistant, and it was trivial to backup the network, unplug the ConbeeII, put in the IP address of the new coordinator, and import the backup there and everything just continued to work. Then I had that die, it was actually the PoE portion which died, so I did the reverse and transferred everything back to my ConbeeII while I diagnosed and fixed it, then when it was fixed transferred everything back to the TubeZB coordinator. It actually took longer to get the IP address assigned on the TubeZB coordinator than it did to transfer my network each time, it was incredibly simple. I'm not sure for z-wave though. I do use it, but I've never had a z-wave gateway die on me, or had any reason to replace it where I wasn't also moving or something. [1] https://tubeszb.com/product/efr32-mgm21-poe-coordinator/ https://tubeszb.com/product/efr32-mgm21-poe-coordinator/

wlesieutre 3y ago
Good to know! One of the more specific things I was wondering is that when you relinked everything if HA would forget what's what or if it would hook the devices back up to all their automations afterward. I have some Hue bulbs which are Zigbee, but I've been considering getting out of Hue's ecosystem for controlling them.
- Klathmon 3y ago
  The names seemed to reset for some of my zigbee devices (interestingly not all of them, just some of them, it's likely something else going on and unrelated but I don't know for sure), but they still work in their original automations and in my UI everywhere that I have them.

mannyv 3y ago

I believe the re-pair process is a side effect of how security was implemented. I also heard it was technically possible to migrate without pairing, but i think right now it's between hubs from the same manufacturer. It's been years since i checked.

alistairSH 3y ago

Zwave devices definitely seem to be "sticky" - you have to unpair/pair each device. At least that's been my experience using Zwave with a Smartthings hub.

rlpb 3y ago

AIUI, at protocol level, Z-Wave supports multiple controllers and if you have two and one dies then you can switch to the other and replace the first. I can't see consumers arranging that though, and nor do I know how to do it.