Backing up and transfering my ISY994 info

[srjacob]

I have a working ISY994 running about 30 Insteon devices and an Elk M1 System.  I have a spare ISY994 I would  like to get running as a backup to my working ISY.  The ISY is running firmware 5.0.16C, which seems fairly stable.

I would like to transfer the firmware and Elk module to the backup ISY.  Is there any good way to do it?

I tried telnetting into the working ISY using PUTTY, but the ISY rejects the telnet.

If I pull the SD card from the working ISY, copy it on a Windows 11 machine, then burn an SD card with that image (using RUFUS), will that work?

If not, is there a better way to do this?

[paulbates]

The transfer of ISY modules happens at the UDI side, IIRC. Though the 994i is out of support, you could try opening a ticket with UDI.

The caveat is, I believe, that even if they will do that, the module is associated with one ISY's UUID.... meaning it cannot be in 2 places at the same time.

[Geddy]

@srjacob the hangup will be the Elk "module" as @paulbates said. Proior to when UD ended support for the ISY994 they stopped the option of buying modules for the ISY994. When support ended I believe they also said they would no longer transfer modules to other devices. You might want to go see some of the old news posts on the UD site for when the ISY994 ended support. 

Otherwise, for the Insteon side it's not overly complicated to mirror between two devices. Make sure they both have the same firmware. Just make a backup of the current/old ISY994 then restore it on the other/new device.Your only problem with the Insteon side is the PLM could cause a communication issue, but it might be simple (I've just never actually tried it). I know after getting the ISY and Insteon running on Polisy then eisy I ran the ISY994 for a while to help people here. I had to install the non-inseton firmware so it wouldn't always start in "safe mode" because I didn't have the PLM connected to it. 

Ultimately, the question is...why do you want to do this? Just to have a spare? I would rather suggest that you keep good backups of the working system. Then if/when something happens and you have to change to the other ISY994 it's an easier process of just restoring the most recent backup. 

Knowing that the ISY994 is no longer supported by UD and many here have updated to the Polisy and eisy the user support is also waining for those devices. There are a few that still use them that are very active here, but many (UD included) will probably suggest your time, effort, and money is better put toward updating to a new eisy. 

 

[Brian H]

I was fortunate. During the period when the USY994i was supported and you could still add plugin modules. I add the ones in my original ISY994i to a a spare base ISY994i. They are linked to the UUID.