I want to upgrade(transfer) my existing in-production 4.9 994i using my spare 994i and PLM to 5.3.4 .  Both have Z-WAVE, the in-production ISY at 300 and I just put a new 500 card in my spare.  I'd like to fool with 5.3.4 first but is it safe to run both of these side-by-side (or in the same house) provided I don't restore the in-production database into the hardware running 5.3.4 until I'm comfortable with 5.3 and turn off my 4.9?  Could standing up two systems side-by-side jack up my currently running installation?  I've got maybe two dozen Insteon devices and three Z-WAVE devices online and I don't want to mess up my existing installation.  Would it be safe to learn a couple new Insteon devices into my new 5.3 box that are not in the 4.9 database while 4.9 and 5.3 are both running? Any comments are greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

I would not share devices between two PLMs. Only because it is easy to get confused and make a mess that gets difficult to straighten out.

Currently I am running an ISY and a polisy and although I have dumped all my code over I have disabled all my program folders and only enabled certain non-Insteon functions ie: Ethernet based inputs and system things like time clocks from ISY's internal system functions.

I have recently written some NRs and syncing programs that write value updates into my polisy variables eg: $sHouse.vacation,and $sHouse.occupied. I will slowly be adding more as I can depend on the polisy firmware for al my functions. Then most of the code is written into the old ISY and can be detached easily. Each step of the way must be thought out very carefully as you can make a mess that can be hard to straighten out.

Best of luck. Try to keep it to devices separate from essential functions. Otherwise you will have multiple links to each PLM that need to be cleaned up later and every Restore you do will erase the other PLM's links which will be quite hard to fix.

11 hours ago, GJ Software Products said:

I want to upgrade(transfer) my existing in-production 4.9 994i using my spare 994i and PLM to 5.3.4 .  Both have Z-WAVE, the in-production ISY at 300 and I just put a new 500 card in my spare.  I'd like to fool with 5.3.4 first but is it safe to run both of these side-by-side (or in the same house) provided I don't restore the in-production database into the hardware running 5.3.4 until I'm comfortable with 5.3 and turn off my 4.9?  Could standing up two systems side-by-side jack up my currently running installation?  I've got maybe two dozen Insteon devices and three Z-WAVE devices online and I don't want to mess up my existing installation.  Would it be safe to learn a couple new Insteon devices into my new 5.3 box that are not in the 4.9 database while 4.9 and 5.3 are both running? Any comments are greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

As I pointed out in your other post... unless you already have it you won't find a 2413s PLM to buy at this point.

You can however install the non-plm firmware on the second ISY.