Upgrading & Transferring

OK - so a more complicated migration here, so I could use help.

I currently run OH 2.5.4 on an intel atom based system. That system is making all sorts of suspicious noises, so I want to move to something new. I’ve just got a Raspberry Pi 4, and want to move to OH 3 on that system.

Do I need to do this in 2 steps? Upgrade the other system to OH3 first, then migrate my updated OH3 configuration to the Pi? Or can it be done in one step?

To add to the complication, I have a HUSBZB to control Z-wave and Zigbee devices in my home. Can this transfer over seamlessly, or do I need to unpair each device from the stick before moving over?

Thanks for the help.

If it’s a text based config, you can copy it over.
Couple of things to watch out for:
Rules using time need modifying to use java time instead of joda time.
V1 bindings don’t work on OH3 so you’ll need to find new OH3 versions, create things and links to your items.
AFAIK, the stick should remember the network members and config, for zwave if not for zigbee.

But if there are secure devices, the security key lives in the binding configuration.

do a fresh install of OH3 on the Pi, then import your stuff, get pieces working one at a time. Use the remote binding to tie into the other instance if you want. Take your time, learn the new interface

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Oh - and by the way, I ended up going the Ubuntu route and then installing openhab on top of that.

I tried openhabian, and it was completely unstable - it continually restarted within 5-10 minutes of reboot. I tried multiple SD cards and multiple installs. No luck.

@Andrew_Rowe:
do a fresh install of OH3 on the Pi, then import your stuff, get pieces working one at a time. Use the remote binding to tie into the other instance if you want. Take your time, learn the new interface

OK - this has already apparently failed.

I tried creating a backup on the old system (openhab-cli backup) - I checked the zip file and it had a whole bunch of stuff in it so it looks like that step went well. I then transfered that file to the new system and tried to restore it (openhab-cli restore) and it claimed that I didn’t create the file with the backup scripts. I tried putting the files in place manually, but no luck.

In particular, I remember it being a complete bear configuring my HUSBZB and getting all the devices (both Zwave and Zigbee) connected - I was REALLY hoping not to have to go through that again. Any advice?

The Z-Wave network. if there are no secure devices, is completely stored on the controller. oFr secure devices the security key is in the binding configuration

A backup from 2.5 is not going to work, the files are in a new location. 2.5 has configuration folder called openhab2 and OH 3.x they are in a folder called openhab. My advice was

Get OH 3 running, use the UI to create your things, import your item files, then test your rules
Since you got a Pi to install OH 3 on, you can continue to use your existing system until your new one is functional

I’m not sure I understand what that means - I get that the devices may still be linked to the controller, but does the controller know their “names” as I used them in openhab, or am I going to have to figure out what device maps to what name?

How about the ZigBee configuration?

I caught that - I put files in that same place.

The problem with “importing my item files” is:

But the problems are:

  1. I don’t have item files for Zigbee, Zwave and WiFi devices
    a. And I can’t test Zwave and Zigbee on the new system while the old system is running, because I need the stick!
  2. The format for insteon devices has COMPLETELY changed
    a. There is now a things file, which never existed before, and the hub definition now resides there instead of in a separate file in the services directory
    b. The format for the items file is completely different

So it’s essentially as if I have to start completely from scratch to move from 2.5 to 3.0. That’s sort of disappointing.

The controller knows what devices are in the network identified by their node numbers. Those numbers are also used for identification in openHAB If you add the controller Thing to OH with the same id as the old one, the device Things will have the same ID as the old ones.

The user friendly name you could define is strictly in openHAB.

That configuration should be in the JsonDB files that were backed up. Since they are text based they are somewhat human readable.

Perhaps the best path would be to install OH2 on the Pi 4, restore your backup, and then upgrade to OH3.