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    Recent Update?

    I scanned the posts in this forum, don't see it. About 10 days ago, my system just "died" when I tried to access my HS4 from work. For a day I was baffled. I rebooted the HS Pro 6 platform several times. No joy. Then I decided to look at the plugins installed. I only have 5. They were ALL DISABLED, including ZWave. They were turned off. Well, that's odd, I thought. SO I re-enabled them and all was good, I thought.
    I have events that key off of sundown and sunup. I happened to be up at 4am due to aging bladder syndrome, and heard my bathroom window shades operating. What the heck - those are suppose to kick off 30 minutes after sunrise. So go look at the setup and yes, instead of CST longitude my system thinks I'm somewhere on the east coast. A variety of settings in my setup file are WRONG, such as lat and long once I go looking into it.
    My typical response, developed over the few years I have been using HS is to blame the very pathetic quality control of HS when it comes to sending out NEW systems (took me a year to devote the resources to figure out they had mal-configured the HS 6 PRO platform's window settings to die every 3 days - they KNEW this, they KNEW who they had shipped this crap setting to, and did NOTHING to proactively notify the suckers, errrr, users, like me, who would not migrate from old legacy but rock-solid stand alone HA systems like StarGate to something that could not run for 3 days without crashing like HS3 would.
    So again I am wondering if they sent out an update that my system automatically installed that OVERWROTE the setup file with a set of values from somewhere east of CST and caused a variety of events to start malfunctioning? And to then, NOT BOTHER to alert anyone to this oopsy? I can't figure out another reason why my long and latitude should suddenly change, and various options in the setup alter to contra settings. At least they did not wipe out my events, I guess I should be grateful??
    Anyone else experienced such behavior where the location, the settings, for the setup file suddenly changed within the last two weeks? Idle curiosity - I have returned everything back to the desired values but I have to wonder what else is going to bite me in the arse next time.

    #2
    Ok, so no one else had their "setup" configuration suddenly redefine the vales for the HS4 configuration settings. Let's just call this what Michael Dell called, during a talk to the Central Texas PC Users Group in about 1988 or so, a "cosmic ray bullet". The refresh rate for the memory chips Dell was making at that time was pretty slow. They supplied PCs to the Kiluea volcano science cabin up above a lot of atmosphere. It turns out that if a cosmic ray HIT a memory chip during the middle of a refresh, it blew the stack on that chip. (or whatever). So they realized the refresh rate for memory chips had to be MUCH faster. I miss the CTPCUG very much. ;(
    I am seriously considering requiring the PC to reboot daily at say, 2am each day.
    DOES anyone else already have their PC automatically reboot daily, weekly, etc... or, based on some kind of internal or exterior criteria??

    Comment


      #3
      Sounds like the Config/settings.ini file got trashed. This is where the list of enabled plugins, the timezone, the location (latitude, longitude) and many other values on the Setup pages are stored. I believe the timezone and location default to HomeSeer home base in New Hampshire absent valid configured values.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by TexARC View Post
        I am seriously considering requiring the PC to reboot daily at say, 2am each day.
        DOES anyone else already have their PC automatically reboot daily, weekly, etc... or, based on some kind of internal or exterior criteria??
        Any pc in my home that doesn't need to be on overnight gets powered down by jon00 rcnm. My hs server stays up 24/7 and only reboots, usually overnight for windows updates once a month. Never had an issue doing it this way

        Comment


          #5
          I realized that I had not gotten any email notifications, so checked that under "setup", and all the fields were BLANK. Whatever excrunged my setup it was thorough. Idle thought - is there a backup function for just the setup contents? so I could be able to RESTORE all of the settings "the next time"? Just saw the comment about the config.ini file. So I just need to copy that file to a .bak file in the same location, and then copy it back if my settings all suddenly go awry? I presume after copying it back to the .ini file I'll need to restart HS4. (??)

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Dweber85rc View Post

            Any pc in my home that doesn't need to be on overnight gets powered down by jon00 rcnm. My hs server stays up 24/7 and only reboots, usually overnight for windows updates once a month. Never had an issue doing it this way
            Hi - are you using a scheduled event in windows to trigger the restart for your hs server?

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by TexARC View Post
              is there a backup function for just the setup contents? so I could be able to RESTORE all of the settings "the next time"? Just saw the comment about the config.ini file. So I just need to copy that file to a .bak file in the same location, and then copy it back if my settings all suddenly go awry? I presume after copying it back to the .ini file I'll need to restart HS4. (??)
              The file is named settings.ini, in the Config folder under the HS root folder. HS already keeps a backup named settings.ini.bak, so you probably want to choose a different name than that if you want your own copy.

              HS4 rewrites this file fairly frequently, so to copy it back you'll need to first stop HS4, copy it over, then restart.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by TexARC View Post

                Hi - are you using a scheduled event in windows to trigger the restart for your hs server?
                No. I adjust the business hours settings in windows update so that non business hours are overnight and let windows decide when it wants to reboot to apply updates. This is windows 10 pro. I don't think windows 10 home has quite the same granularity with settings either

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Dweber85rc View Post

                  No. I adjust the business hours settings in windows update so that non business hours are overnight and let windows decide when it wants to reboot to apply updates. This is windows 10 pro. I don't think windows 10 home has quite the same granularity with settings either
                  One of the first things I did after getting HS was upgrade their PC's windoze to the Pro version, when I started up and realized my system was crashing several times a week. Going to Windows 10 Pro did not solve that instability, but it did make it more friendly to remote in from my laptop. I bought the Homeseer PC along with HS3, it came with a defective configuration that I did not figure out for about a year. (I just figured HS3 was very buggy so I delayed migrating off of StarGate which is not buggy). THANKS for your reply, but I would still like to be able to have Windows do a safe shutdown and successful complete restart of both itself and HS4 on a routine basis.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Then a simple batch file via task scheduler would do what you are wanting.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Dweber85rc View Post
                      Then a simple batch file via task scheduler would do what you are wanting.
                      Um, you mean, something like this .bat file that is from 2012? Of course, I would rem out all of the "pause" so the entire thing ran without human intervention....

                      @echo off
                      break on
                      ECHO
                      echo THIS BACKS UP THE PERTINENT STARGATE FILES TO A SUBDIRECTORY
                      ECHO CALLED SGBACKUP ON YOUR CURRENT DRIVE
                      echo if the subdir does not exist it will be created
                      ECHO
                      ECHO You must not be running WinEVM during this process....
                      echo before proceeding, Switch to and close WinEVM
                      ECHO To abort this, Press/Hold the CTRL key and tap the letter C.
                      echo when it asks you if you want to abort, answer "Y"
                      echo otherwise....
                      rem pause
                      :STEP1
                      IF EXIST \SGBACKUP\*.ZIP GOTO STEP2
                      echo THE SUBDIRECTORY SGBACKUP NOT FOUND....CREATING NOW...
                      MD \SGBACKUP
                      PAUSE
                      :STEP2
                      ECHO Renaming old backups....
                      echo on
                      if exist \SGBACKUP\old8.zip del \SGBACKUP\old8.zip
                      if exist \SGBACKUP\old7.zip ren \SGBACKUP\old7.zip old8.zip
                      if exist \SGBACKUP\old6.zip ren \SGBACKUP\old6.zip old7.zip
                      if exist \SGBACKUP\old5.zip ren \SGBACKUP\old5.zip old6.zip
                      if exist \SGBACKUP\old4.zip ren \SGBACKUP\old4.zip old5.zip
                      if exist \SGBACKUP\old3.zip ren \SGBACKUP\old3.zip old4.zip
                      if exist \SGBACKUP\old2.zip ren \SGBACKUP\old2.zip old3.zip
                      if exist \SGBACKUP\old1.zip ren \SGBACKUP\old1.zip old2.zip
                      if exist \SGBACKUP\old.zip ren \SGBACKUP\old.zip old1.zip
                      if exist \SGBACKUP\RECENT.zip ren \SGBACKUP\RECENT.zip old.zip
                      @echo off
                      pause now creating new backup:
                      ..\dease\pkzip -ex -a -r \SGBACKUP\RECENT.zip @SGLIST.LST
                      pause
                      @ECHO OFF
                      ECHO THE FOLLOWING ARE THE BACKUP COPIES OF YOUR FILES:
                      DIR \SGBACKUP /O-D
                      pause
                      echo and this is the contents of your latest backup:
                      ..\dease\pkzip -v \sgbackup\recent.zip |more
                      pause
                      exit

                      ??

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Oh, wait, you were talking about a shutdown restart, not a means of making backups of the .ini file in the hopes of being able to instantly return settings to "normal" when whatever happened to my system happens again. Since it hasn't happened before, unless it happens again in the next few months I can just chalk it up to, I dunno, a random cosmic ray passing through during a ram refresh...

                        Comment


                          #13
                          If you have Windows 10 Pro, just set the Group Policy Editor to download the updates but wait for installation. It won't reboot on its own.

                          Look at section 2 of this article: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-s...lly-windows-10

                          You can also use my plugin to monitor Windows Updates and get notification in HS so you know when there are updates available to install.

                          https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/3r...r-3-homeseer-4
                          Jon

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by jon00 View Post
                            If you have Windows 10 Pro, just set the Group Policy Editor to download the updates but wait for installation. It won't reboot on its own.

                            Look at section 2 of this article: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-s...lly-windows-10

                            You can also use my plugin to monitor Windows Updates and get notification in HS so you know when there are updates available to install.

                            https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/3r...r-3-homeseer-4
                            I appreciate that - I'm more focused on the notion of commanding the platform to perform a "normal" shut down and immediate restart on say, a weekly basis (if not a daily) in order to "keep this house safe from tigers", which is an old database developer prayer. <shrug>. I WANT the system to reboot asap after a MS update and that is my current settings for that, pretty sure. The exception being, when I hear that a particular pending update is possibly buggy I might go in and turn off auto updates for a month... I admit I don't read all of the tech bulletins I used to subscribe to anymore so I am not as aggressively informed as I used to be, but as I age out of wanting to surf the (b)leeding edge of technology I am more at risk, but since I still have multiple off-line backups for MOST things I am happy in my ignorance. Hmmm. That reminds me. I bought a near-identical-to-the-HS6 Pro PC, intending to set up periodic "complete copies" (not backups, but an image) of the HS6 Pro box to it, for that just in case time where the HS PC died on me and I needed to restore my 3-story home's ability to function. Never got around to it. Sure might be a nice WIBLI if HomeSeer decided to SELL a "backup system" option, replete with the software to drive a cloning function to the alternate/backup destination PC - they could include the darn PC and I bet some people would invest in that, simply for the warm fuzzies it would provide.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by TexARC View Post

                              I appreciate that - I'm more focused on the notion of commanding the platform to perform a "normal" shut down and immediate restart on say, a weekly basis (if not a daily) in order to "keep this house safe from tigers", which is an old database developer prayer. <shrug>. I WANT the system to reboot asap after a MS update and that is my current settings for that, pretty sure. The exception being, when I hear that a particular pending update is possibly buggy I might go in and turn off auto updates for a month... I admit I don't read all of the tech bulletins I used to subscribe to anymore so I am not as aggressively informed as I used to be, but as I age out of wanting to surf the (b)leeding edge of technology I am more at risk, but since I still have multiple off-line backups for MOST things I am happy in my ignorance. Hmmm. That reminds me. I bought a near-identical-to-the-HS6 Pro PC, intending to set up periodic "complete copies" (not backups, but an image) of the HS6 Pro box to it, for that just in case time where the HS PC died on me and I needed to restore my 3-story home's ability to function. Never got around to it. Sure might be a nice WIBLI if HomeSeer decided to SELL a "backup system" option, replete with the software to drive a cloning function to the alternate/backup destination PC - they could include the darn PC and I bet some people would invest in that, simply for the warm fuzzies it would provide.
                              Personally, I'm not happy to let Windows reboot when it wants. My Windows Update Monitor provides a virtual device to indicate if a reboot is required. It also has a control to reboot the (remote or local) computer. Therefore using a standard Homeseer event, you can trigger on this reboot flag and restart the PC. Before rebooting, it shuts down Homeseer gracefully (if running on that PC); rather than the forced close of all applications running with a WU restart. No Homeseer databases corrupted!
                              Jon

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