HS4 Hyper-V Virtualization w/ USB Stick Interface

[ezmaass]

Hello,

For the past year, I've been running HS4 from a Windows Server (host), but I'd like to migrate it to a virtual machine. I initially placed it (reluctantly) on the host because there didn't appear to be a clear way to pass the USB Z-Wave interface through to a Windows VM. However, from what I've read here, it looks like several people are indeed running Homeseer from within a VM, and I assume at least some of you are using a USB Z-Wave interface.

Most of the articles I've read (admittedly few as I've just begun to research this again) seem to speak to USB storage devices but not others. I believe the HS USB SmartStick+ comes up as a USB COM device under Windows. I'd be curious to hear from those of you who are running in this configuration - best practices and guidance on how to configure the VM to access it.

Likewise, this will (hopefully) be my first migration of HS. I'd also be interested in hearing any best practices there, as well - ideally looking to make this as simple and smooth as possible.

Much appreciated!

[Dweber85rc]

The easiest way to do this is to ditch the stick and get a znet. I am using hyper v to run hs as a vm with a znet. Works great! But hyper v does not do usb pass through well. You would need something like VMware workstation to do this. But buying a znet is less expensive than a license of VMware workstation.

[ezmaass]

The easiest way to do this is to ditch the stick and get a znet. I am using hyper v to run hs as a vm with a znet. Works great! But hyper v does not do usb pass through well. You would need something like VMware workstation to do this. But buying a znet is less expensive than a license of VMware workstation.

Ahh - OK, I wasn't aware of this device. Took a quick look and that's probably ideal for avoiding the need to figure out the USB pass-through. I'm sold - going to purchase one straight away.

Now, a few follow-ups on migration (excuse some of the newbie questions)...

1. Is it possible to export my current USB stick interface and import to the ZNet?

2. I've taken back-ups of HS to-date but never restored or migrated it. Is this a straight-forward process of importing/restoring my HS configuration on a new VM installation, or am I in for some bumps (e.g., needing to setup device or polices again)?

Thanks!

[ezmaass]

So, I've made a bit of progress now...

1. Ordered the Z-Net device - looks great!

2. Made local back-ups of my (a) Z-Wave Interface, and (b) HS4 configuration.

3. Took a look at the restoration instructions (looks simple enough) along with a YouTube video showing migration to Z-Net (again, looks straight forward).

---

So, if everything I've seen is correct thus far, my plan should be as follows - please let me know if this seems off in any way (including order):

1. On the current HS4, remove the USB Stick Interface on the management controller screen.

2. Add the new Z-Net Interface and restore the prior interface network (ZWave backup file) to it. This should essentially get me to the point of having the Z-Net on my current HS4.

3. Take a new backup of the Z-Net Interface (not sure if this step is necessary).

4. Shut down the current HS4 and Install HS4 on new Virtual Machine.

5. Restore the HS4 configuration using the Backup/Restore function under Tools.

6. Add a new Z-Wave Interface for the Z-Net.

7. Restore the Z-Wave Interface.

8. Run a full optimization on the new interface.

Hopefully this is roughly the right approach?

[Dweber85rc]

You might want to look through this though before doing a full optimize. https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...works-11-12-18

[wpiman]

I have a Z-net and recommend that approach-- but another alternative is a Anywhere USB....

[ezmaass]

OK... migration complete!

Thanks to HomeSeer for the very speedy delivery on the Z-NET and simple to follow instructions for migrating the interface. Here was the process I followed for anyone who may need to do the same in the future:

---- Migrate to Z-NET ----

Before trying to migrate HS4 to the virtual machine, I decided I'd first migrate / upgrade the interface on the existing installation. This was as simple as following the including instructions with the Z-NET. But essentially it comes down to these steps:

- Back-up the existing USB stick interface.

- Disable the USB interface and physically remove the USB stick.

- Connect the Z-NET to the network and power it up.

- Find it on the network (find.homeseer.com) as it'll initially get a DHCP address. You can leave it as such (presumably HS will deal with changing IPs), or you can set a static IP by clicking the device and modifying its settings to a static IP (I chose this route).

- Add a new Z-Wave Interface, selecting Z-NET Ethernet (if using dynamic IP) or Ethernet Interface if using static IP (it'll then let you specify the IP/Port).

- Restore the interface from the back-up made in the first step

- Optimize without Return Routes (did 2x per instructions) followed by a Full Optimization of the network

This part of the process went flawlessly. The new interface worked like a charm.

---- Migrate HS4 to Virtual Machine ----

I then had to migrate the whole thing to a virtual machine. I first prepared the VM by copying over everything I thought I'd need - this included full replicas of my HS4 and HSTouch installation directories to a back-up folder (NOT the actual install area under Program Files).

- Installed HS4 and HS Touch Designer from scratch using the installers from Home Seer website. This allowed the installers to setup whatever prerequisite components, registry keys, etc.

- I then copied over the back-up locations on top of the install locations (e.g., Program Files (x86)\<HS4 directory> and Program Files (x86)\<HS Touch directory>) for a quick and dirty way of importing all of my previous configurations, plugins, etc.

- I started up HomeSeer, validated it showed my license, allowed me to log-in, and showed all of my existing devices and events. Everything appeared to be working just fine.

- My HS Touch (tablet mounted to the wall) did initially fail to login, even though I had specified a new HS4 Server in the app. This was rectified by (a) uninstalling and re-installing the HS Touch App, (b) going into the HS Touch Designer and specifying a new HS4 Server (has to be done regardless), and then (c) re-deploying the app to the tablet running HS Touch.

---- Start-Up Configuration ----

At this point, the whole configuration appeared to be working on the new VM using the new Z-NET interface. The last thing to do was to configure a few things in Windows.

- Automatic Updates (and Restart) can be painful in Windows 10. I regularly check my VMs for updates, but it's easy to be "out of sight, out of mind" and have the machine automatically re-start. I don't want that behavior, so I turned off what I believe to be all the requisite Windows Update restart features, and I also went into Group Policy Editor (gpedit) and enabled the policy that prohibits auto-restart without a user logged-in providing consent. I'm not 100% certain I got ALL of the necessary settings, but I'll start here. Migrating HS4 from Windows Server, there was no such concept as an auto restart!

- I then created a Task Scheduler task to auto-start HS4 when the VM is booted. Most important (thanks to a Home Seer YouTube video) are two settings: (a) enable the task to run without a user logged in, since you want this to execute at start-up, and (b) specifying the HomeSeer directory as an optional "working directory" for the process when it starts up.

- I then restarted the VM and waited a minute. Sure enough, everything came up as expected, as I was able to hit the web admin portal and my tablet announced "Welcome to HomeSeer!"

---- Conclusion ----

In conclusion, the whole process isn't very difficult, but it does take an hour or so. The Z-NET interface is very cool - I love the idea that the interface is now network-based and decoupled from the machine running HS4. I may order an additional Z-NET to have on standby in case this one fails, or just look into running more than one.

I'll need to see how things go over the next few days and weeks - hopefully everything is as rock-solid as HS4 has been on the Windows Server host. Since that machine will be going through a host upgrade soon, my next adventure will be shuffling the new HS4 virtual machine (along with various other VMs) to a temporary host. The decoupled Z-NET interface should only make that process easier, as theoretically I only need to bring the VM up on a new host - no hardware to touch.

Thanks again to the folks here who suggested Z-NET and to HomeSeer for the speedy delivery and simple instructions!

[ezmaass]

One additional comment regarding Z-NET...

While I'm loving the concept thus far, I will say it's off-putting to have ZERO security on the device administration portal. While there's not much one can do with it, certainly you could take it offline by simply mucking with address settings, in turn taking down all HS Z-Wave access tied to it.

Without any security, I'll probably look to minimally put the device on a VLAN that's restricted to only the HomeSeer VM. But I do think HS needs to add some basic security to the device.