Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

How To move a HomeSeer configuration to another system or HomeTroller

Collapse
This is a sticky topic.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    How To move a HomeSeer configuration to another system or HomeTroller

    This HowTo describes a procedure that allows you to copy a working HomeSeer configuration to another computer.

    Many plugins store configuration informaiton in INI files. These files are located in the HomeSeer config folder. Copying over these files will restore the plugin settings. While some plugins can be moved by just copying their DLL file, this will fail on most. The only reliable way to install a plugin is from the updater.

    Here is the procedure:

    1) On the new system, install all the plugins you will be using from the HomeSeer updater, but don't enable them on the interfaces tab yet.

    2) Copy over the entire config folder from the old system, but do not copy the .lf files. The license files will not work on the new system anyway, and if you copy over the old .lf files none of your plugins will work as they will be unlicensed. Leaving them out insures that they will at least run as a trial for testing purposes.

    3) Make sure your configuration file is copied over also. By default, your config file will be named "sample.mdb", unless you saved it under a different name. Normally, this file is located in the config folder, so it will be copied in step 2. But its possible that you saved it elsewhere. If so, copy it over to the new system and save it in the config folder. From the HS web setup you can only load config files from the config folder, so it makes sense to leave it there.

    4) Run HS, and look at the devices page. Since you copied your config folder from your old system, HS should automatically open your old config and load all of your plugins. See if all of your devices and events are there. Note that the HS settings are all in the file "settings.ini". This includes all plugins that should be enabled.

    If all looks ok, you should be running the same configuration as your old system. The only issues you may have could be system related, such has COM port settings, etc. Check the configuration page on your plugins and make sure they are set up properly. You will need to re-enter your license ID's to enable any licensed plugins. You can get all your keys automatically emailed to you from the HomeSeer support page:

    http://www.homeseer.com/company/selfsearch.htm
    💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

    #2
    Attemping to use the procedure however can not find ".IF" files in the "HomeSeer HS3" directories has something changed with the latest HS3 Pro files and if so what file do I need to look for? I did find a "Licenses.bin" file under the \Config directory

    2) Copy over the entire config folder from the old system, but do not copy the .lf files. The license files will not work on the new system anyway, and if you copy over the old .lf files none of your plugins will work as they will be unlicensed. Leaving them out insures that they will at least run as a trial for testing purposes.
    Computer: CUK Intel NUC7i7BNH
    Op System: Windows10 Pro - Work Station
    HS Version: HS4 Pro Edition 4.2.19.0

    Plug-Ins: AK Weather 4.0.5.25,APCUPSD 3.3.2.3,BLBackup 2.0.63.0,BLEditor 2.0.11.0,BLGData 3.0.55.0,BLOccupied 2.0.28.0,BLShutdown 1.0.6.0,Blue-Iris 3.1.3.33206,Device History 3.2.0.2,EasyTrigger 3.0.0.76,Harmony Hub 4.0.14.0,iRobot 5.22.41.1,JowiHue 4.0.8.7,Nest 3.0.0.34,NetCam Plugin 1.0.0.5,PHLocation2 3.0.0.64,Pushover 4.0.10.0,Random 3.0.0.2,Restart 1.0.0.7,Ring 1.0.0.9,SDJ-Health 3.1.1.3,Sonos 3.1.0.59,Sonos4 4.0.1.12,UltraCID3 3.0.6681.34300,UltraMon3 3.0.6554.33094,UltraNetCam3 3.0.6413.20219,Unifi 4.0.32.0,Zigbee 4.0.11.0,Z-Wave 4.0.3.0, and Jon00 scripts.

    Comment


      #3
      I just tried this, and while the zwave plugin connected to the controller, and I see nodes on the controller, I don't see them on my home page. ??!!

      Is there a way to fix this?

      Thanks!
      Mike

      Comment


        #4
        And none of my events are on the new system either. (Sorry for the 2nd post, I'm 'not authorized to modify my original reply. ... ??

        Thanks,
        Mike

        Comment


          #5
          I have to do this too one of these days. I've been procrastinating cause it sounds like a pita. But I looked in the config folder, and everywhere in the HS3 directory and I never could find any .lf files. So i'm curious too where these license files are as well.

          Comment


            #6
            I just preserved the license.bin on the target system, and had to move the Data folder as well as Config, but everything seems ok now. all my devices and events are there.

            Comment


              #7
              I just got a new HomeTroller SEL Pro after using Homeseer on a PC since the old HS2 days. I realize this is probably stupid but how exactly does one copy files from the PC that is currently running HS3 to the new HomeTroller?

              I can see the HomeTroller interface using my browser but I don't see anything that would allow me to copy files to it. Even though the HomeTroller is plugged into my router, it doesn't show up in Windows Explorer so I don't see how I can copy files to it. I copied the "config" and "data" directories from my current HS3 installation to a data stick and have that plugged into the USB port on the HomeTroller but that's as far as I can get. I really really don't want to have to manually recreate all my HS3 settings, devices and events!

              Bill

              Comment


                #8
                xlucent try using WinSCP to access your Hometroller files. You will just need the IP address of your Hometroller.

                Comment


                  #9
                  xlucent There is a backup and restore option Tools|Setup menu. BTW The SEL PRO is a Linux based system. I don't think it is setup to share and publish files for Windows to discover.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I am in the same boat as my current host computer is rapidly failing and doesn't run my events when it crashes...lol

                    It would be nice if HS would update these types of "How to" threads. This was created in May 2007 and we are now Dec 2020 with major revisions in the software.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I too am in the first phase (research) of upgrading to the new HomeTroller PRO Smart Home Hub from an S6Pro (about 2 years old). My current system has over 250 events, and a combination of Zwave, Insteon, X-10, and sensors of all descriptions. Also, the entire system is accessable using my android cell phone from HS Touch Designer.
                      Does anyone have a list of How-to's for my huge transfer of this entire system onto the new controller (and cell phone using my own GUI design? i I don't want to rewrite all of my events, as this would take years to accomplish.
                      Thanks for any help. HS does not have a good owner's manual (as you all know),
                      Peter /// Portsmouth, NH

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by P Dawson View Post
                        I too am in the first phase (research) of upgrading to the new HomeTroller PRO Smart Home Hub from an S6Pro (about 2 years old). My current system has over 250 events, and a combination of Zwave, Insteon, X-10, and sensors of all descriptions. Also, the entire system is accessable using my android cell phone from HS Touch Designer.
                        Does anyone have a list of How-to's for my huge transfer of this entire system onto the new controller (and cell phone using my own GUI design? i I don't want to rewrite all of my events, as this would take years to accomplish.
                        Thanks for any help. HS does not have a good owner's manual (as you all know),
                        Peter /// Portsmouth, NH
                        Well, I did a windows to windows transfer...from Win10Pro 64bit to Win10Pro 32bit, here's what I did....
                        So I setup a desktop i had with a Pentium D 2.8Ghz CPU with 4GB RAM, put in a RAID1 set of 2 500GB HDD with a clean install of Windows 10 32bit and successfully moved HS over to it.
                        I installed HS3 from a download as a new install on the desktop.
                        then I shut down HS3 on the old server, copied it's directory completely to my file server.
                        then copied it from my file server to the desktop, maintaining the "Program Files (x86)" path from the server on the desktop even though it's now on 32-bit.
                        Booted up HS and let it go through it's thing, tons of errors (hardware missing mainly) but it loaded up with my settings and looked good. So to speak.
                        I moved the USB devices from the old server to the desktop and then after figuring out the new COM assignments, went into the plug-ins and adjusted where necessary.
                        Then I shut down, reboot, and launched HS3 with no errors in the startup...but it seemed sluggish.
                        It's as I mentioned in another thread today because my new system is working but it is a CPU hog keeping it at 100% utilization. trying to figure out how to fix that.
                        But the transfer of the software itself was ok...but something isn't right still.

                        https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...tion-by-hs3pro

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Well... I gave up. After numerous attempts and a couple OS reloads....and not being able to get HS3 to run on the new machine worth a damn (way too much CPU utilization) I called of the search for the answer.
                          I moved the HS3 back to the original machine (just re-enabled it actually) and I bought a new (to me) better machine to move my NVR over to and leave HS to run happily without fighting against the MVR software for resources.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by rjh View Post
                            This HowTo describes a procedure that allows you to copy a working HomeSeer configuration to another computer.

                            Many plugins store configuration informaiton in INI files. These files are located in the HomeSeer config folder. Copying over these files will restore the plugin settings. While some plugins can be moved by just copying their DLL file, this will fail on most. The only reliable way to install a plugin is from the updater.

                            Here is the procedure:

                            1) On the new system, install all the plugins you will be using from the HomeSeer updater, but don't enable them on the interfaces tab yet.

                            2) Copy over the entire config folder from the old system, but do not copy the .lf files. The license files will not work on the new system anyway, and if you copy over the old .lf files none of your plugins will work as they will be unlicensed. Leaving them out insures that they will at least run as a trial for testing purposes.

                            3) Make sure your configuration file is copied over also. By default, your config file will be named "sample.mdb", unless you saved it under a different name. Normally, this file is located in the config folder, so it will be copied in step 2. But its possible that you saved it elsewhere. If so, copy it over to the new system and save it in the config folder. From the HS web setup you can only load config files from the config folder, so it makes sense to leave it there.

                            4) Run HS, and look at the devices page. Since you copied your config folder from your old system, HS should automatically open your old config and load all of your plugins. See if all of your devices and events are there. Note that the HS settings are all in the file "settings.ini". This includes all plugins that should be enabled.

                            If all looks ok, you should be running the same configuration as your old system. The only issues you may have could be system related, such has COM port settings, etc. Check the configuration page on your plugins and make sure they are set up properly. You will need to re-enter your license ID's to enable any licensed plugins. You can get all your keys automatically emailed to you from the HomeSeer support page:

                            http://www.homeseer.com/company/selfsearch.htm
                            rjh I realize this post is very old and I'm not sure if you're still in the forum or not. Isn't the whole purpose of the backup and restore to be able to do exactly this? In other words if you're on a Pi, do a backup there, and if you're on a Hometroller Plus, take that backed up file and restore it to the Hometroller system.

                            This is exactly what I did. After some dicking around I finally got my mark sandler insteon plug-in working just fine. The difficulty I'm having now is with Z-Wave. I have the Nortek Z-Wave dongle, and installed the Windows 10 drivers for it per the instructions. The plugin says okay, it's on the right COM port, but I still can't control my Z-Wave devices.

                            There really is no "how to" on doing exactly this, which I would think would be a common practice for people looking to upgrade or move on from a Pi.

                            Now if anyone reading this has done exactly that move from a Pi to a Hometroller Plus, restoring their backup file and trying to get Z-Wave to work I'd appreciate anything advice. I'm also reaching out to HS support.

                            ​​​​​​​ I've made a list of the things I found so far and when I get Z-Wave working I'll post a how to on what worked for me.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              What you did is correct but the restore does not restore everything for a few reasons.

                              After the restore on the new system you need to do the following:

                              * Install any plugins you were using. We don't back up plugins since some plugins are different between Windows and Linux and on Windows there are issues backing up running processes.
                              * For Z-Wave we don't back up the node information that is in your Z-Wave interface since this a plugin function not an HS function. However, the nodes are automatically backed up and those files are backed up and restored. They are in /Data/Z-Wave. Use the Advanced Functions menu in the Z-Wave plugin and restore the interface. Select the file with the latest date.

                              I suspect the Z-Wave nodes not being restored is your issue. Note that if you used a SmartStick on the old system and then installed the same SmartStick on the new system, you do not need to do the restore since the nodes are stored in the interface.

                              We do have a detailed restore doc here:

                              How to Restore a Backup - Products (homeseer.com)

                              Originally posted by Mediatech View Post

                              rjh I realize this post is very old and I'm not sure if you're still in the forum or not. Isn't the whole purpose of the backup and restore to be able to do exactly this? In other words if you're on a Pi, do a backup there, and if you're on a Hometroller Plus, take that backed up file and restore it to the Hometroller system.

                              This is exactly what I did. After some dicking around I finally got my mark sandler insteon plug-in working just fine. The difficulty I'm having now is with Z-Wave. I have the Nortek Z-Wave dongle, and installed the Windows 10 drivers for it per the instructions. The plugin says okay, it's on the right COM port, but I still can't control my Z-Wave devices.

                              There really is no "how to" on doing exactly this, which I would think would be a common practice for people looking to upgrade or move on from a Pi.

                              Now if anyone reading this has done exactly that move from a Pi to a Hometroller Plus, restoring their backup file and trying to get Z-Wave to work I'd appreciate anything advice. I'm also reaching out to HS support.

                              ​​​​​​​ I've made a list of the things I found so far and when I get Z-Wave working I'll post a how to on what worked for me.
                              💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X