finally outgrew my RPI 3 with HS3 standard for Linux

[Kerat]

So, I finally outgrew my little RPI3 running on HS3 Standard. Note, my system had some quirks:

1. I replaced specific x86 exes with their associated Arm compiled versions from the base Zee image.
2. When I first built my RPI for HS3 the Raspbian repos were only offering mono 3.4. I didn't think this was a big deal but when I rebuilt from scratch and upgraded to the latest version of Raspbian I found out events get bjorked when you move to mono 4.x or newer. So, I hard set to mono 3.12 and moved on as far as I could.

Recently the flash drive on the RPI started to fail and it just isn't as reliable as it used to be. Now that we have the JSON event export I have exported my events from the old RPI system.
A few months ago I built a Whitebox Vmhost (running ESXi 6.5 U2 running on an AMD 1700 (65Watt TDP, 8 core, 16 thread), 32 GB ECC DDR 4 RAM, ZOTAC GeForce GT 710 1GB DDR3 PCIE x 1, Intel i340-T4 PCIE 4 port gigabit NIC, LSI 9207-8i HBA, 4x 8TB 7200 RPM HDDs, 2 x 480 GB SSDs). My plan is to move all my server side and NAS processing and storage to the new VMhost.

In order to move my HS3 install to the new Vmhost I have built an ubuntu 18.04 x64 Server VM. I followed u/Simplex Technology's guide here: https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...u-18-04-server.
I then read through the how-tos and did some testing of that process. I noticed that I was able to get HS3 licensing, and addons installed. I also found that I could restore the events but I didn’t have any of the devices, timers, etc. that I needed.
Instead, I opted to restore my last good backup (tools – setup general tab – configuration section – restore config). I changed the IP binding in settings.ini to the new Server's IP. I then rebooted.

1. licensing seems to have come back good.
2. addons are installed and licensed.
3. devices are there.
4. timers are there.
5. I did notice that my events got bjorked, as was expected.
   • I then restored the events.json export from the old server to the new one. that seems to have worked aside from losing my event grouping.

The last major part was to allow the VM to access the smartstick+ ZWave transceiver. I have had some good luck with passing my LSI 9207-8i through to my NAS and would like to try the same thing with the smartstick+ before conceding and picking up a belkinusb to ethernet bridge or a Zee2.

I did notice u/Sachemo7’s post regarding downgrading the USB drivers in order to improve the connectivity for the smartstick+ (https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...attempt-solved).
I brought all my VMs down gracefully, put the Vmhost in maintenance mode, enabled SSH, and disabled the use of the VMKusb drivervia terminal. I then rebooted the host.
Based on direction from a RL friend I added the sigma designs modem to the VM. I powered the system on and all seemed to be working. I still have some work to do:

1. I need to get my custom scripts back in, and re-point all the associated events.
2. I also need to fix the backup job so it can save to the appropriate local directory.
3. I need to setup my VM backups
4. I am going to take u/Pete’s advice and add in webmin.
5. For off local drive backup I am going to add Duplicati and configure the backup routine to maintain the synchronization between my NAS backup location and the zipped backups.
6. I need to add homebridge back in.
7. I need to redo the permissions that allow HS3 to reboot the other systems on my network.
8. check that shutdowns and restarts of the software and application are solid.
9. re-setup the 2 hour auto-commit script to ensure that DB always stays up to date.
10. I need to redo the grouping of my events (they now show ungrouped after the events.json restore)

[concordseer]

There's so many single board computers on the market now, some a lot higher speced than the Raspberry Pi it has slipped back in popularity somewhat. For those suffering from plugin obsession the RPI was never going to be a solution.

Personally I don't see MONO being a long term solution either. Homeseer may need to have a long term look at its software on the Linux platform

[Kerat]

agreed, the 1GB limit on RAM on the RPI line is very limiting. I really like my Rock64 (Quad core 1.5 Ghz 64 bit ARM CPU with 4 GB RAM). I use it for media streaming because the onboard GPU (ARM Mali-450MP2) supports 4k60. I think I paid some $50 versus the $35 RPI.

I run a few other systems in my house on top of Mono and am happy with them. Mono really grew up a good deal in the 4.x and newer versions. I was just stuck in a rock and a hard place with the mono 3.x version. I guess with the more mature versions net core they could try moving to another solution. I think Emby server for Linux went that direction. I will find out shortly as that system is next on my list to migrate to my ESXi host from my 8 year old Windows 10 HTCP Server and front end.

[sickpuppy]

I never understood the fascination of running HA on RPI. It's not tenable in the long-run. Just get a dedicated rack mount system running Win7 or Embedded, turn off updates, and call it a day.... for the next 10 years.

[bdickhaus]

I never understood the fascination with 10 year old unsupported operating systems... But I used to run exactly that, Win7 on an old desktop. Ran fine for many years until something on the motherboard let loose its smoke. I'm running an RPi3 with 10 plugins. Until the SD card eventually fails, it will run forever without touching it.

[Michael McSharry]

I never understood the fascination of running HA on RPI. It's not tenable in the long-run. Just get a dedicated rack mount system running Win7 or Embedded, turn off updates, and call it a day.... for the next 10 years.

If one is not dependent upon the internet for anything and does not want to take advantage of current technology then this will work until some part of the hardware/infrastructure fails. What has been a hassle for me on my PRO100/XP is the weather forecast providers are using TLS2 security and XP does not know about using this level of security.

[jimbell]

Can someone elaborate on the json event export? I can not find anything about it in any of the docs.
Thanks,

[Kerat]

Can someone elaborate on the json event export? I can not find anything about it in any of the docs.
Thanks,

Ah, so the JSON Event Export (setup - LABS - export events and Import events) was added in to allow a user to backup and restore their events to a "fresh"install of HS3. It was added for users that were still stuck on legacy versions of Mono 3.x where in event triggers were gone after upgrading to Mono 4.x or newer. It worked pretty well for me and my 180 ish events. I did go through and purge unneeded events. i did a check for each event and verified all conditions.

[Kerat]

So, I am moving through the last minute cleanups on my rebuild. i have all my scripts back in, my events are cleaned up. I am working on all my custom images for my devices. I have run into a problem related to the zwave interface. I get a "z-wave error" in the log that reads: "network: Error, the Z-Wave API Transmit Queue is not empty after waiting 20 seconds - the interface may be disconnected or not operational (network)". I did some lite googling and it appears that either I have poor power being supplied to my smartstick+ or I have a bad HS Smartstick+. the recommendation is to either replace the z-wave interface or get a active powered USB hub. has anyone else had this problem and resolved it?

[Kerat]

So, i did pickup a USB 2.0 4 port active powered hub and 6' extension. I ran the hub to where the old RPI was setup high on the wall so as to be able to access all basement level and first floor nodes. The "network: Error, the Z-Wave API Transmit Queue is not empty after waiting 20 seconds - the interface may be disconnected or not operational (network)" is done. I haven't finished looking through all the devices and pointing them to their new location. is it possible to update the fields in the HS DB?