[INFO] HC2 Recovery and Backup/Restore - 4.180 back

[AutoFrank 372]

Hi

This post started off because I had an issue with my HC2 and I had to do a recovery. There was a lot of great suggestions from many people including @Sankotronic, @RH_Dreambox, @Jamie mccrostie, @jimicr, @tinman, @petergebruers, @Bodyart, @Rafael Suarez, @DAWO  so I decided to turn it into a [INFO] Recovery and Backup/Restore type post. If I have any part wrong or misleading please let me know and I'll edit .

This is not an absolute guide and not meant to be solution but more of a structured way to document what worked for me and what was shared as I worked through the process. I've pulled it all into the first post should some of it be useful to other forum users.

**Trying any of this should be your judgement call when you weigh up your specific situation and risks** 

 

Some general comments that I found helpful 

• HC2 will power on without the recovery stick in the USB slot. The HC2 runs perfect, but you can't make or restore backups. The boot process runs from an internal drive. 
• HC2 RECOVERY boots from stick and that's where your backups are.
• Z-wave led (4th from left) shold flicker and is rarely solidly 'on'
• IDs are unlimited. Number of physical devices (with a Z-Wave chip) talking to each other in one network is 232 (if you need more, you need extra controllers). But scene IDs and device IDs are unlimited.
• As of 4.120 all custom icons after a recovery will NOT show in the Web UI but show okay on Android Phone, Andoid Tablet and iOS iPad.

• In case restore was necessary to fix zwave / modules not configured and / or other zwave related things (which might happend e.g. after firmware update) then definitely do "yes" to purge zwave database. After restore, all modules will get anyway recognized. you might do run soft reconfiguration to get latest templates

• Sometimes it takes a while after entering recovery for HC IP to connect, @Jamie mccrostie had to wait 5 to 10 minutes until it would reconnect. Up to that it just said something like "device unavailable" with a white browser screen even though all three leds on the front panel are back up

• Try and not have too many backups - The unofficial advice from Fibaro Support was to only keep between 4 and 6 backup versions. I had 50 backups at one stage consuming 74% of storage and I started to see performance issues.

• After recovery, please go to each device's "Advanced" page and click on "Read configuration", then, after a few seconds, refresh the page. Start with mains powered devices. What happened, during recovery, is this: some devices have been reconfigured (and parameters get default values). Then, the database was restored. Now, the contents of the database and the parameters stored on the device are no longer in sync. If you still have one device that doesn't act as expected, please try it. After "Read configuration" you'll see that the (refreshed) parameters page explains/matches its behavior 

 

HC2 IP address

FYI a HC2 can have several possible IP:

• The DHCP assigned address used last time.
• A new DHCP address.
• The static IP you assigned.
• The static IP 192.168.81.1 = "recovery IP". This happens if you hold the "Learn Mode Button" too long (I think > 2 seconds). To recover from this situation, you have to give your PC the address 192.168.81.2 netmask 255.255.0.0 and browse to 192.168.81.1. Then you can put back the original IP or set the unit to DHCP.

The Fibaro Finder doesn't find all possible IPs

 

Backup seemed to go on a bit longer than expected.

power down HC2 using power button

 - I didn't pull out the plug but the next time I would (after I had completed an orderly shutdown using the button)  

I would then power back up and see if the UI came available. 

If not then you may need to take the recovery route (Which is what I had to do) 

 

Recovery and Restore steps I found worked for me

Power down system using power button, unplug HC2 briefly)

hold recovery button (button next to power button)

press power button (and keep holding recovery button)

When the first led on front of HC2 ( on the right side ) stays on solid release the recovery button

back to browser - clear cache, wait about 20 seconds for recovery mode to activate

open up UI at IP address (if usual IP address doesn't work search for HC2 using Fing or something similar)

Recovery screen will be displayed

Select Recovery (first box on left)

Reset Zwave

- Click no if you want to keep your devices and restore on top of that 

- Click Yes if you want to clear everything. All devices will be added back in if you have a good backup available

Let recovery complete and it will reboot

Close browser and clear cache and open browser at IP address 

If IP address has changed use Fing again to find

My HC recovered to 4.036 (which is pre wizard and email logins)

Open browser and login using admin/admin

All your devices wont be there but ignore that for now

Select upgrade to 4.120 (which is the latest fw for me when this happended)

Allow the upgrade to complete

close browser and clear cache

try and login using admin/admin but if this doesn't work you could try the wizard. 

Reopen browser and you may find your email login doesn't work (if you try and generate a new password - this wont work either as your email wont be recognised)

Activate the wizard (not sure how I did this)

Complete the required steps (email, password and confirmation code sent to email)

Log into Web UI using email and password just created during wizard

The system is now at 4.120 but doesn't have your setup

Now go to the backups/restore section in the UI and select a backup to restore (I selected the second last one mainly because I had a suspicion that something went won't with my last backup)

let this restore complete

close browser, clear cache and log in

All should be okay, give the system the once over

depending on how old your last backup was you may need to reinstate the changes you made between the backup you restored and now

I had two issues at this stage but just minor 

  1) All my custom icons were missing (this was expected)

  2) Some of my fibaro dimmers (dimmer 1) had parameter 14 (switch type) a bit messed up and I had to fix.

 

Another post about a Factory Reset

 

 

 

 

Edited September 17, 2018 by AutoFrank

[John9439 11]

This may be a silly question but have you tried restarting your HC2 system?

 

[AutoFrank 372]

31 minutes ago, John9439 said:

This may be a silly question but have you tried restarting your HC2 system?

 

@John9439

@T.Konopka

 

 yes, unfortunately... and restores, backups and everything except the kitchen sick 

 

but the good news is that the issue disappeared.

I had a parallel issue with not being able to add a switch and I deleted some infrequently used vd's and hey presto the problem adding and deleting vd's disappeared and I was also able to add the lamp switch

 

I wonder did I hit a limit ?

my last back up stats are 

 

Please login or register to see this attachment.

 

I'm sure there are bigger systems out there working okay....

 

[Sankotronic 2,370]

On 4/14/2017 at 3:52 PM, AutoFrank said:

I wonder did I hit a limit ?

my last back up stats are 

 

Please login or register to see this attachment.

 

I'm sure there are bigger systems out there working okay....

 

 

Hi @AutoFrank,

 

If you hit the limit then I'm near too:

 

but I don't think we are near limit. I added one VD yesterday with no problem at all.

 

Edited May 2, 2017 by Sankotronic
Attachment quota filled up / deleting older stuff sorry :-(

[AutoFrank 372]

20 minutes ago, Sankotronic said:

 

Hi @AutoFrank,

 

If you hit the limit then I'm near too:

Please login or register to see this attachment.

but I don't think we are near limit. I added one VD yesterday with no problem at all.

 

 

@Sankotronic

 

I agree, 

 

... now I have a different problem (it's been that sort of day)

I did a restore from a few days ago and added back in the changes I had made over the last few days and started a backup.

The backup has now been running for almost an hour which before never took longer than 10 mins

 

Should I interrupt (which I really dont want to do) or wait ? 

Edited April 14, 2017 by AutoFrank

[Sankotronic 2,370]

1 minute ago, AutoFrank said:

Should I interrupt (which I really dont want to do) or wait ? 

 

Did you just try to refresh page on browser? Is z-wave led flashing or it's off? Can you connect to HC with your mobile on LAN?

[AutoFrank 372]

1 minute ago, Sankotronic said:

 

Did you just try to refresh page on browser? - yep, all the usual stuff 

 

Is z-wave led flashing or it's off? - its off

 

Can you connect to HC with your mobile on LAN? - nope nothing on phone or tablets

 

it would definitely still seem to be running the backup, but just seems worryingly long ... 

[Sankotronic 2,370]

Just now, AutoFrank said:

 

it would definitely still seem to be running the backup, but just seems worryingly long ... 

 

It is definitely still in saving backup mode or frozen. I would probably press On/Off button until now but that's me.

[AutoFrank 372]

1 minute ago, Sankotronic said:

 

It is definitely still in saving backup mode or frozen. I would probably press On/Off button until now but that's me.

 

@Sankotronic       just about to sit down to dinner so will leave it until after that .. then its  case of closing eyes, praying and pressing the on/off button

[Sankotronic 2,370]

@AutoFrank,

 

I will be in prayer with you! Enjoy your meal!

[AutoFrank 372]

18 minutes ago, Sankotronic said:

@AutoFrank,

 

I will be in prayer with you! Enjoy your meal!

 

@Sankotronic, on/off button pressed and now powering up and starting services .. will leave it run for a while. 

Please login or register to see this attachment.

Edited April 14, 2017 by AutoFrank

[Sankotronic 2,370]

1 minute ago, AutoFrank said:

 

@Sankotronic, on/off button pressed and now powering up and starting services .. will leave it run for a while. 

 

Ok, waiting for good news!

[AutoFrank 372]

Just now, Sankotronic said:

 

Ok, waiting for good news!

 

not too hopeful TBH, no z-wave led activity.. could be heading towards recovery  

[Sankotronic 2,370]

Just now, AutoFrank said:

 

not too hopeful TBH, no z-wave led activity.. could be heading towards recovery  

 

My HC usually after switching Off and then back On, when first three LED are lit, take some time like a minute before it turns on z-wave LED. Then usually z-wave LED is turned on for longer time twice before it start flashing normally. At that time if I try to refresh page on browser I get 503 page.

[AutoFrank 372]

10 minutes ago, Sankotronic said:

 

My HC usually after switching Off and then back On, when first three LED are lit, take some time like a minute before it turns on z-wave LED. Then usually z-wave LED is turned on for longer time twice before it start flashing normally. At that time if I try to refresh page on browser I get 503 page.

 

@Sankotronic

its been 15 mins now and still starting services, perhaps this is where it got stuck during the backup

I'll try one more restart and then head down the recovery roiute

[Sankotronic 2,370]

Just now, AutoFrank said:

 

@Sankotronic

its been 15 mins now and still starting services, perhaps this is where it got stuck during the backup

I'll try one more restart and then head down the recovery roiute

 

Uffff. but why this happens? I really like to know why it get stuck like that? Do you use heating panel and linked devices? From forum I can see that many people have problems with this panels stuff.

[AutoFrank 372]

Just now, Sankotronic said:

 

Uffff. but why this happens? I really like to know why it get stuck like that? Do you use heating panel and linked devices? From forum I can see that many people have problems with this panels stuff.

 

@Sankotronic, I agree, I'd like to understand more. I don't use any of the panels or linked devices, its a reasonably straight forward setup. I've deliberately kept it simple. .. but perhaps its just having a bad moment... second restart initiated and getting stuck at the same place.. heading the recovery route.. Advanced Warning - There may be foul language in a little while 

[Sankotronic 2,370]

1 minute ago, AutoFrank said:

 

@Sankotronic, I agree, I'd like to understand more. I don't use any of the panels or linked devices, its a reasonably straight forward setup. I've deliberately kept it simple. .. but perhaps its just having a bad moment... second restart initiated and getting stuck at the same place.. heading the recovery route.. Advanced Warning - There may be foul language in a little while 

 

Well, I will not blame you for foul language. I hope that recovery will help. But just to ask, did you try to boot it up with network disconnected? Maybe it is worth to try. there can be some service looking for something that can't find maybe.

[AutoFrank 372]

Just now, Sankotronic said:

But just to ask, did you try to boot it up with network disconnected? Maybe it is worth to try. there can be some service looking for something that can't find maybe.

 

 

@Sankotronic, too late, just started the recovery process.. all fingers crossed

[Sankotronic 2,370]

Fingers crossed!