Isy (5.0.16) Died. I want to migrate to a used EISY

[GDavis01]

I recently arrived at my vacation home to find that my trusty ISY (5.0.16) had died, which explained why I had lost any remote access.

I want to migrate the system to an EISY (5.8.0) that I had been using at my main home until we moved last year. The EISY has an active portal license. I also have a backup config file for the ISY. I only have Insteon devices.

I am curious about a few things before i proceed:

- I see that the latest firmware is 5.9.1 whereas I am at 5.8. Is it always advisable to update the EISY beforehand? (Update Packages)

- The fact that the EISY was used at another home with different devices should I restore the PLM before I start the migration? The WiKi seems to suggest that I should only do this after I Restore ISY.

- I am also assuming that restoring from the back up to the ISY will delete any traces of the installation I previously had on the EISY... is that correct?

[Guy Lavoie]

The two versions seem close enough, so upgrading beforehand would seem like a good idea. I'm not sure what you mean by restoring the PLM. Restoring a PLM is something you normally do when replacing a PLM on an existing system, or if you have communications issues and you think some links might be missing. The migration process says to connect the PLM to the new controller and run the upgrade, though that assumes that the PLM was being used with the same devices, on the controller you are upgrading from. What you might need to do instead is "Delete Modem (PLM)" to erase the links from the previous devices, before doing the migration. This would be like installing a new PLM, and then migrating.

[GDavis01]

Thanks for the reply.

After I posted my note I was reading about some of the issues related to running the Update Packages command. Have these been resolved?

You are right about the Restore PLM command... I have been away from the ISY for too long I forgot the terminology! So, as you say I probably should Delete PLM to get rid of the links before I do the migration and then afterwards Restore PLM to establish the proper links on the PLM.

[Guy Lavoie]

Yes, that's what I meant. The idea is to remove any links in the PLM that don't belong there, which would be all of them if it's being moved to a different home with different devices. Since a migration might be assuming that you're updating an existing system, it might not automatically restore the PLM (since the links would already be there). If that comes up, then a Restore PLM might also be needed after the migration.

A few people have run into some issues with the Upgrade Packages process. Though I have yet to hear of one that wasn't recoverable by UDI support. The fact that you're not upgrading a live system should give you a bit more piece of mind if something happens and you require support.

Edited Friday at 08:25 PM by Guy Lavoie

[oberkc]

I am unsure whether your intention is to use the PLM from the vacation home or the former main home.  If from the main home, I would be extremely tempted to perform a factory reset before installing it in the new location.  

I would be almost as tempted to do the same on the EISY, except for the portal license.  The license, of course, can be added back but would require some effort with Universal Devices.  

[Brian H]

One thing to consider. The OLD PLM's six digit ID is in all the modules will not respond to the new PLM' six digit ID. I believe replace modem will go out and write all the needed changes in the modules being controlled.

[Guy Lavoie]

As @oberkc referred to, there was no mention of whether the PLM will be the one that was used with the now dead ISY994i or if it's the one that has been with the used eisy. I would certainly try the one that was already in that house first. In that case, it would be just like doing a ISY994i to eisy upgrade. 

Another thing: the ISY had release 5.0.16, which is the last version (5.0.16C actually) that supports the Zwave 300 board. Do you have Zwave devices too? If so, those won't migrate, and you'd need to reinstall them (and have the needed Zwave 700 series dongle or Zmatter dongle on your eisy).

Edited 18 hours ago by Guy Lavoie