Has anyone done a successful backup of Aeon Labs Gen5 Z-Stick?

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
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1

Hi Guys,

has anyone here who is using the GEN5 stick already used the Aeotec Backup tool? And if so, maybe also restored the backup to a new stick? Does this work?

I have a Mac only, so I could not try this on my own. Software is only available for WIN. Reading the instructions https://aeotec.freshdesk.com/helpdesk/attachments/6014685451 I saw that a “gateway security key” has to be entered. Where would I get this key from? OH1, HABmin, Raspbian?

If this works well and a restore is possible (and all devices still “accept” the new stick as the primary controller, so that no re-include is necessary), I would install a Windows VM on my Mac to get a first step of a backup solution for my OH1 environment.

Regards,
Stefan

2

I have done multiple backups and restores on my win10/64 virtualbox hosted on a linux box. I am using this for copying set-up from one stick to another.
Someone else reported issues under vmware, but it might have been an older version of the tool

3

Sounds good @vespaman! Do you know what’s this Gateway Security Key is all about? Where do I get this from?

4

It is the one that you have set for your stick in OH2. I don’t really know much about the security stuff, since I don’t have any nodes using it, but it has to be declared since some months back. Not sure how this is done in OH1. (Never used OH1 myself)

5

Hi there.
Thanks for the info.
I have searched for a long time for such a tool!

I did not understand though where is this "security key " located in OH2 config

TX again

6

@Chris: Do you know anything about this security key in OH1? Is this a z-wave related key? Or a more general key of any kind?

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By the way. When I try to use it with a stick it reads and displays a value from the stick.

8

The security key is used by the security classes - it’s effectively the password that is used to exchange secure data between secure devices.

So, yes, it’s a ZWave related key.

9

What do you mean? It can’t read it from the stick as it’s nothing to do with the stick. Are you still talking about the security key, or something else?

10

Ok, thanks! The question remains: Where can I get this key? Is it visible in HABmin? Or with a certain linux command?

11

For OH1, you need to set it in the config file. For OH2, it’s a configuration parameter in HABmin, so a bit easier.

12

I have to define it myself in openhab.cfg? Is this documented anywhere? What is the structure of the key? What’s the exact name of this parameter in the config file? I couldn’t find any sample entry …

13

Yes - exactly. Its YOUR password, so YOU will need to define it otherwise it’s not so secure. :wink:.

Yes - I guess you’re using OH1, so it’s in the OH1 wiki for the security testing version.

Take a look at the wiki - it describes the configuration.

14

Ok, thanks Chris! I’m sorry, but I still have some questions… As I “only” want to get/define this key, do I really have to use the dropbox-zwave-precompiled jar? Or is it sufficient just to define the “zwave:networkKey” in openhab.cfg? Maybe the jar is only necessary if I want to include real security devices (like locks), which I do not plan to do? I am asking because the dropbox-jar is about 3 months old, so it hasn’t the latest zwave code (like this was also mentioned in this thread: https://community.openhab.org/t/updated-z-wave-security-command-class/12045

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If you aren’t using security devices, then you don’t need to use the precompiled JAR, and you don’t need to define the network key. It is better to simply use the nightly snapshot from cloudbees.

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Well, but for my desired purpose, it seems to be necessary to define the network key. Otherwise it seems that a backup of the Gen5 stick isn’t possible.

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How are you doing the backup? Openhab doesn’t support that, and the key is only stored in openhab - it’s not on the network, or the stick at all.

18

Well, I haven’t done it yet because the backup tool only exists for WIN and I am a MAC user. But have a look at the Aeotec instructions for backing up the stick (see my link in the first posting). There is mentioned that one need to specify the security key.

19

Well, I don’t know what that is for, but I suspect you can probably type anything in there. I really can’t see how it can be linked to openhab as we never tell the stick the key we use. In your case, if you’re not using security classes, then the key is NEVER used, so it really can’t have any bearing on the backup.

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Hi there, I used the tool, mentioned above to create backup of my Gen 5 USB Stick successfully - got 256kb file. I did not tried to restore it,though :slight_smile:
Concerning security key - I just tipped “Read Settings” button, and it showed some current values, which do not seem to be relevant. Flag “Enable Security” I left unchecked. I tipped “Read EEPROM” afterwards and backup started.