Migrate Vera 3 UI5 to Vera Plus UI7

Vera Controllers, Services & Devices Vera Controllers & Cameras
#1

I’m back after a lengthy hiatus having a non-home-automation-driven actual life so I’m sure I’ve missed A LOT of developments, progress, and war stories. In my absence the current systems performed reliably with no apparent problems. But now that I’m back its time to migrate my Vera 3 UI5 world to the Vera Plus UI7. So I’m looking for pointers to a reliable, glitch free method to make the transition.

I currently have two Vera 3s;

  • Vera A runs almost all the lights and sensors, Virtual Motion Sensors updated from Blue Iris, Smoke Detectors, (7) instances of PLEG, Vera Alerts;

  • Vera B supports a few special purpose switches and sensors, the DSC Alarm Interface, Arduino Subsystem, GCal3 Calendar Interface, (2) instances of PLEG, Vera Alerts;

The two units talk to each other using HTTP commands to set switches on the other unit.

I have just received two Vera Plus units with the intent to deploy them in the same configuration. Can anyone point me to the latest, greatest, tested and proven, sure fire method of making the transition without leaving a trail of ruble behind? Some of the posts reflect what appear to be significant problems in making the trasnsition.

Is it smarter to go UI5->UI7 on the Vera 3 and THEN move to the Vera Plus? Just go from Ver3 UI5 straight to Vera Plus UI7?

Thanks
John

#2

i’ll let others chime in… but i’m in similar boat.

and based on others, waiting for the next firmware to come out first… then decide. Should be pretty soon! :slight_smile:

#3

Your system sounds pretty massive, I had problems going from vera 3 on ui7 to vera edge, when the plus came out, I rebuilt my system from scratch. It was a lot of work, I have 80 devices, but it has been rock solid for me. With the nwi it was pretty simple to include my devices around the house. It’s was a lot of work, but my system has been the best it’s ever been.

#4

The two systems have been stable, the only current problem is periods of sluggish response to inputs such as motion sensors, door sensors, etc., Normally the response is virtually instantaneous but every few minutes it can take up to 45 seconds or more for a light to go on when a door opens. I’ve never been able to figure out why this is occurring.

#5

Further to my inquiry about migrating to VeraPlus. It appears the preferred process is to move from UI5 → UI7 then make the move from Vera 3 to Vera Plus.

Is there any data on the relative impact on the hardware of moving to UI7? Right now my two Vera 3 units are running at 95-98% Memory utilization and bouncing anywhere from 5-20% CPU.

Will moving to UI7 make this measurably worse, the same, or better?

#6

For what it’s worth my approach has been slowly, slowly, catchy monkey ;D

I’ve had a Vera 3 running about 120 physical Z-Wave devices for many years - pretty much been rock solid, but then I don’t use any plugins and all my logic is external via node-red using UPnP and MQTT to interface, so Vera 3 does absolutely nothing other than essentially act as a Z-Wave <-> Ethernet gateway.

I chose to move gradually to two Vera Edge.

One I am using solely with Z-Wave Plus devices and I have replaced around 40 devices from the original Vera 3 with Gen5 versions.

IMO a Z-Wave Plus controller will work best with Z-Wave Plus devices, especially if you can get them all included Securely, because an all Z-Wave Plus network will be fully optimised and all the benefits of Z-Wave Plus will be realised.

I also have a test Vera Edge where I make sure that any Gen5 device works fully to my satisfaction before putting into my live system.

The second Vera Edge I am moving devices slowly off the Vera 3 as a proper migration and this has purely “normal” Z-Wave devices.

So far I have about 40 / 40 / 40 across Vera 3, Edge Gen5 and Edge non-Gen5.

This approach so far has proven pretty solid, leaving a week or so after moving a few devices at a time to make sure things are stable, plenty of backups, etc, etc.

For reference my Vera Edge Gen5 last rebooted on 14th February 2016 (firmware upgrade). My Vera Edge non-Gen5 last rebooted on 10th April 2016 (firmware upgrade). Both have exactly one “unexplained” LUUP restart on the rollover into a new month - which is a long standing Vera “feature”.

I have no great need for speed of moving (probably about 9 months into the move now), so this works well for me. Since all my logic and control are abstracted elsewhere I could even move platform entirely with relative ease if I wanted, but so far I’ve not found anything that comes close to the flexibility or compatibility of Vera (even with all its faults, of which there are many).

Hope that’s of some help!

Martyn