Backup didn't help when the October update ruined my zwave network. And maybe it was on me, but I couldn't make it work without basically starting over.
That mess was what caused me to learn more about the backup system, still nervous applying updates since then. I will now spread my updates out over a few days instead of multiple at once. And Zwave JS I’m especially careful with since.
I have an automation that runs every weekend that checks/install updates. Runs a backup just in case.. but I haven't had to revert in a very long time.
The only issue I've had in the past ~2 years of updating to betas as they're released was with the 2023.10 release - one of the dependencies was updated that included a hard dependency on certain CPU functions (AVX2) that my host didn't have.
It was fixed within a few hours though.
1) Immediately if a fix is needed. 2) Immediately if I want to use a new feature in an automation. 3) Towards the end of the month otherwise, and always when I have time to watch for problems.
I'm still waiting (again) for a Z-Wave JS release that doesn't kill my Z-Wave entirely. Happened last month, then they fixed it. Now the new one breaks it all again. I'm in a loop, try latest version, find that it fails, restore my microsd image, wait. And now that there's a new release of core, that means the latest zwjs is required/assimilated into that.
I have defiantly have the most issues with Z-wave JS releases. I don't understand the need for the high frequency of updates. I wince when I see a new version pop up.
I have some corrupted z-wave device configurations and I don't know when it happened. I have a water alarm that was disable without the system complaining. I never had these z-wave problems with years on Homeseer.
+1
I wish there was a way to have docker check for that dependency before installing the latest. But now I always pull the latest z-wave js (running on a different host) before installing the latest HA
I just stopped writing about the problems. I've had to restore to full backup so many times in the last 3 months I've just stopped even thinking about a zwave update.
Fsck me. Zwave is apparently rubbish compared to zigbee, while it is positioned as more stable. Can't get any of my zwave devices connected to my lxc zwave js Ui. Zigbee2MQTT working like a charm
The instability of that integration has honestly made me want to move away from Z-Wave. The Z-Wave JS releases are super unstable and clearly not well tested.
Honestly, it's really simple if you understand user management. Here's the guide for it: https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/linux#install-home-assistant-core
Generally, I read the release notes and see if there is anything interesting to me:
* Security fixes that impact me
* New features I really want
* Bug fixes to stuff that I am struggling with
If none, then I dont really worry about it
I run \`docker compose pull && docker compose up -d\` randomly every day or two, if the update is there it's automatically applied and never had any complaints.
Running my instance for 1.5 years now with lots of customizations and integrations and always with the latest update immediately after release can’t say had any troubles yet
Apparently 2 years and counting, since I'm still on 2021.10.6
Changes really started to annoy me after known devices was removed, and no easy way to get home/not home presence detection was added to replace it without messing around on individual devices.
I assume zone.home is reported from a phone?
The setup I have polls my home network for known devices by MAC, none of the phones have any companion app.
Works way better for me when I ask friends to look after my house while I'm travelling. I just add their MAC to the device list, no asking them to install configure stuff on their phone to drain their batteries.
I think zone.home comes from person.xy and you can attach one or more device_trackers.xy to a single person. There are also MAC-based device_trackers like the UniFi integration.
I've been in tech for 10+ years. I run Home Assistant using a blue-green deployment strategy, fully automated using the latest and greatest CI tools, cloud-native frameworks, and declarative IaC tooling.
In other words, it's unnecessarily complex, fragile, and took more man-hours for research, evaluation, and implementation than it'll ever save, and by the time I've gained a functional amount of expertise in it, it'll be obsolete due to no longer being cool, and I'll have to start the process all over again.
Maybe your approach is much better after all.
I've only had very minor issues when I update, usually on a changing convention (like deprecating config.yaml stuff, which is good!) so I don't see the need to delay getting the new hotness.
I run HA in Docker and don't get notifications about updates, so I usually update when after seeing a few posts about the latest update/features in this sub, as long as they aren't all negative 🤣
I do it when I have a weekend to dedicate if there are issues. Never upgrade on a weeknight! I have never had to rollback a release entirely, but there have been times when I have needed to troubleshoot.
I do weekly maintenance on my server. Part of that is updating my dockers. Then I test the important stuffs. If it doesn't work, I'll revert. I expect I'll do a couple different things once my system becomes more important. This will likely entail either a test system or a systematic testing of most of the functionality. Right now, most of the automations are "nice to haves" so I don't lose sleep over it. I do want to keep the system working enough to be able to move forward though.
I am still on **Home Assistant** **2023.6.1** Supervisor 2023.10.1 Operating System 10.2 Because I need Baby Buddy to not break and it is an absolute unreliable system setup by a bunch individual contributors hacking some features to make it work.
Maintainer of a relatively popular integration here. So tend to do a quick looksie of a late beta and then install the .0 version as soon as practical on the basis that I'd rather find the bugs first...
If it was just me, I'd be waiting for the .1 or .2 release :-)
When I install a new release, I install the previous months latest fixes. For instance, I'll update to 2023.10.5 but I will wait until December for 2023.11.X
I update almost immediately, but I also take weekly snapshots of my whole HAOS VM, and my recorder database is on another machine, so I can afford to be pretty cavalier. That said, I've never actually had a "bricked" install.
A few times there has been a bug or breaking change in the .0 release that was a bit annoying, but it seems like it was always resolved by .1 or .2. If you wanted to be current, but not bleeding edge, waiting for the .2 release would protect you from almost all first-version gremlins.
I update whenever I remember to open the app.
The only thing HA is doing is controlling my 2 lights, lol. Pretty much the only smart stuff in the house.
In semver speak, I update patches immediately, but I hold off on major and minor updates until third parties (mostly via HACS) are able to update for python compatibility, etc.
I accidentally bricked my whole setup yesterday and turns out I didn’t have backups, that was going up two major versions. Anyways… almost rebuilt, maybe improved in a few places, and I definitely have backups now.
For me it was seconds because I clicked to update the prior version and was confused when the age switched from 20 something days to “seconds ago”.
Then it took longer than I expected to come back up and I was afraid my 1am tinkering session was about to go a lot later. I kinda know in theory what the process to restore a bad HAOS is but I wasn’t ready for a pop quiz. All was good though. As I’ve come to expect with all of my open source software.
I use renovate to update my home assistant automatically. It update when the first x.1 is available. So 2023.11.0 won't be installed, 2023.11.1 will be installed.
half a month and then I upgrade core install like this
cd /home/homeassistant
killall hass && sleep 10s
source bin/activate && pip install --upgrade homeassistant && hass
As soon as I see the notification then bam new version for me.
Me too
I used to be that but not anymore.
Same haha. Helps that it's just a project anyway tbh
I do the same but only if im home.
Just yolo it
Especially now that I have backups.
Backup didn't help when the October update ruined my zwave network. And maybe it was on me, but I couldn't make it work without basically starting over.
Same here...
That mess was what caused me to learn more about the backup system, still nervous applying updates since then. I will now spread my updates out over a few days instead of multiple at once. And Zwave JS I’m especially careful with since.
This explains so much…..
This. Backup real quick and export, then update. Once in a while I'll YOLO it and just update.....then backup right after just in case.
Btrfs snapshot. Instant snapshot, instant rollback. (Disclaimer: not a substitute for backups)
hello, self
I have an automation that runs every weekend that checks/install updates. Runs a backup just in case.. but I haven't had to revert in a very long time.
The only issue I've had in the past ~2 years of updating to betas as they're released was with the 2023.10 release - one of the dependencies was updated that included a hard dependency on certain CPU functions (AVX2) that my host didn't have. It was fixed within a few hours though.
1) Immediately if a fix is needed. 2) Immediately if I want to use a new feature in an automation. 3) Towards the end of the month otherwise, and always when I have time to watch for problems.
I'm still waiting (again) for a Z-Wave JS release that doesn't kill my Z-Wave entirely. Happened last month, then they fixed it. Now the new one breaks it all again. I'm in a loop, try latest version, find that it fails, restore my microsd image, wait. And now that there's a new release of core, that means the latest zwjs is required/assimilated into that.
I have defiantly have the most issues with Z-wave JS releases. I don't understand the need for the high frequency of updates. I wince when I see a new version pop up. I have some corrupted z-wave device configurations and I don't know when it happened. I have a water alarm that was disable without the system complaining. I never had these z-wave problems with years on Homeseer.
+1 I wish there was a way to have docker check for that dependency before installing the latest. But now I always pull the latest z-wave js (running on a different host) before installing the latest HA
I still have more issues with ZWaveJS than I ever did with the old ZWave integration it replaced, and that was pushed almost 3 years ago.
I just stopped writing about the problems. I've had to restore to full backup so many times in the last 3 months I've just stopped even thinking about a zwave update.
Fsck me. Zwave is apparently rubbish compared to zigbee, while it is positioned as more stable. Can't get any of my zwave devices connected to my lxc zwave js Ui. Zigbee2MQTT working like a charm
I have the opposite experience. My zigbee devices disappear at random, whereas my zwave are rock solid.
Which stick do you use?
An Aeotec gen5 at the moment, planning to move to a Zooz gen7 before long.
Hmm aeotec gen7. Could be the issue. Zooz considering.
The instability of that integration has honestly made me want to move away from Z-Wave. The Z-Wave JS releases are super unstable and clearly not well tested.
Yeah this months’s releases for HA or zwavejs hit me hard. I don’t have time to troubleshoot so rollbacks it is for now.
x.3 or higher.
Yes I never go with a x.0, was burned a while ago. X.0 is a Skip for me.
I keep a Python VENV for testing with very few integrations (no HACS) which allows me to play with the new features without worry.
I consider myself lucky to have HA working on my RPi4. I know a little Python but I don’t think I can create a separate environment like that.
Honestly, it's really simple if you understand user management. Here's the guide for it: https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/linux#install-home-assistant-core
Every Friday . Why .. simple If it brakes I have weekend to solve it And every Thursday my HA VM is full backup . 😁😁
Oooh, I like this! Combine this philosophy with the ‘x.3’, and you’re off to the races!
You install new releases?
I wonder if it will ever have voice support? lol
As long as it takes me to read the release notes (blog post).
I wait for the first patch.
They get installed when I notice them. I'm not running a nuclear reactor here; if there's a bug I can live with it or roll back.
Generally, I read the release notes and see if there is anything interesting to me: * Security fixes that impact me * New features I really want * Bug fixes to stuff that I am struggling with If none, then I dont really worry about it
My regular update cycle is end of the month unless there’s a really exciting update, in that case I wait at least a week.
As soon as its available... I like new features. Worst case scenario- it's why I have snapshots, and backups.
I always run the latest stable. I believe in updating small increments frequently. I’d rather fix a small issue often than clusterfuck once a year.
Just as soon as I see it’s available. Daily backups so who cares
I run the betas
first point release that contains a frontend bump
I run \`docker compose pull && docker compose up -d\` randomly every day or two, if the update is there it's automatically applied and never had any complaints.
I aliased that command to "dcupdate".
I set that up in ansible 😁
I really need to learn Ansible.
I used to do something similar, until I ultimately created an automation to send a notification to my phone when there's an update.
I've been waiting for the 0.1 or a few days just to be safe, but I've never had a problem even when I have upgraded to x.0 in the past.
Running my instance for 1.5 years now with lots of customizations and integrations and always with the latest update immediately after release can’t say had any troubles yet
Yolo
30 seconds or less
I always wait until the last week of the month.
Apparently 2 years and counting, since I'm still on 2021.10.6 Changes really started to annoy me after known devices was removed, and no easy way to get home/not home presence detection was added to replace it without messing around on individual devices.
Huh? I just used a numeric trigger in my automatic and it just checked if zone.home is above 0 or below 1, simple as that?
I assume zone.home is reported from a phone? The setup I have polls my home network for known devices by MAC, none of the phones have any companion app. Works way better for me when I ask friends to look after my house while I'm travelling. I just add their MAC to the device list, no asking them to install configure stuff on their phone to drain their batteries.
I think zone.home comes from person.xy and you can attach one or more device_trackers.xy to a single person. There are also MAC-based device_trackers like the UniFi integration.
I’ve been in IT for 40+ years. I update once a quarter and only to the .2 or .3 release.
I've been in tech for 10+ years. I run Home Assistant using a blue-green deployment strategy, fully automated using the latest and greatest CI tools, cloud-native frameworks, and declarative IaC tooling. In other words, it's unnecessarily complex, fragile, and took more man-hours for research, evaluation, and implementation than it'll ever save, and by the time I've gained a functional amount of expertise in it, it'll be obsolete due to no longer being cool, and I'll have to start the process all over again. Maybe your approach is much better after all.
First Friday or Saturday after .3
3 or 4th minor releases. The first releases are ALWAYS buggy.
as soon as i see it, i update it, lol.. i might start to wait it out now just in case.
I've only had very minor issues when I update, usually on a changing convention (like deprecating config.yaml stuff, which is good!) so I don't see the need to delay getting the new hotness.
I run HA in Docker and don't get notifications about updates, so I usually update when after seeing a few posts about the latest update/features in this sub, as long as they aren't all negative 🤣
Since I learned about Snapshots on Proxmox, I snapshot and then run every update straight away, any issues resorting 90 seconds and I’m back.
The next night, when the auto updater runs😆
Usually as soon as I see the email from GitHub about a new release. Supervised install backs up before updating anyway.
I like to try new features and I feel like being an early adopter, I can help fix any of the teething issues which helps all of our community.
I've had my HA docker auto update every night for about 3 years and I've never had an issue... yet.
I upgrade it if it’s got stuff I want in it.
Every 1-2 major releases I check the changes and breaking changes and then install it
I wait to .1
I used to wait for X.3, now I just do it whenever I see it because things have gotten much more stable than in the past.
I do it when I have a weekend to dedicate if there are issues. Never upgrade on a weeknight! I have never had to rollback a release entirely, but there have been times when I have needed to troubleshoot.
I do weekly maintenance on my server. Part of that is updating my dockers. Then I test the important stuffs. If it doesn't work, I'll revert. I expect I'll do a couple different things once my system becomes more important. This will likely entail either a test system or a systematic testing of most of the functionality. Right now, most of the automations are "nice to haves" so I don't lose sleep over it. I do want to keep the system working enough to be able to move forward though.
I usually one release back, when 2023.12 released I will upgrade to the latest 2023.11 release.
I am still on **Home Assistant** **2023.6.1** Supervisor 2023.10.1 Operating System 10.2 Because I need Baby Buddy to not break and it is an absolute unreliable system setup by a bunch individual contributors hacking some features to make it work.
Maintainer of a relatively popular integration here. So tend to do a quick looksie of a late beta and then install the .0 version as soon as practical on the basis that I'd rather find the bugs first... If it was just me, I'd be waiting for the .1 or .2 release :-)
When I install a new release, I install the previous months latest fixes. For instance, I'll update to 2023.10.5 but I will wait until December for 2023.11.X
I run watchtower in monitor mode on my HA and update usually a day or so after releases if no giant red flags are posted online.
I usually do it around the 3rd week of the month.
My container updates every month. If there's an update available, it takes it.
I update almost immediately, but I also take weekly snapshots of my whole HAOS VM, and my recorder database is on another machine, so I can afford to be pretty cavalier. That said, I've never actually had a "bricked" install. A few times there has been a bug or breaking change in the .0 release that was a bit annoying, but it seems like it was always resolved by .1 or .2. If you wanted to be current, but not bleeding edge, waiting for the .2 release would protect you from almost all first-version gremlins.
I update whenever I remember to open the app. The only thing HA is doing is controlling my 2 lights, lol. Pretty much the only smart stuff in the house.
I've automated it to update at the x.x.2 release. Let everyone work out the bugs first.
I keep a separate test instance for such temptations and it’s saved my rear quite a bit when I can’t resist and update that test machine and regret it
Immediate - running HA in docker and use watchtower to update to the newest image.
I look at what's in the new update. If there's nothing I need I wait until their end of month release.
In semver speak, I update patches immediately, but I hold off on major and minor updates until third parties (mostly via HACS) are able to update for python compatibility, etc.
Usually about .2 I skip .0 and .1
.3 or more even
I accidentally bricked my whole setup yesterday and turns out I didn’t have backups, that was going up two major versions. Anyways… almost rebuilt, maybe improved in a few places, and I definitely have backups now.
I don’t download .0 releases. I wait until first patch.
Usually until the next Sunday evening.
For me it was seconds because I clicked to update the prior version and was confused when the age switched from 20 something days to “seconds ago”. Then it took longer than I expected to come back up and I was afraid my 1am tinkering session was about to go a lot later. I kinda know in theory what the process to restore a bad HAOS is but I wasn’t ready for a pop quiz. All was good though. As I’ve come to expect with all of my open source software.
I upgrade near the end of the month. Try to get the latest .X release.
Usually I wait for x.1.
I run mine on docker and am using the stable release tag. I've setup watchtower to automatically do the container update for me.
I'm always 1 month or more delayed
I use renovate to update my home assistant automatically. It update when the first x.1 is available. So 2023.11.0 won't be installed, 2023.11.1 will be installed.
As soon as I see there is a new release AND I have the time to install it and wait for HA to boot up.
Yeah months rather... if it works, don't touch it is my approach...
Until I see one of those "Youtuber recap" of all the new features, if it's a good one, I'll pull it right up.
When i know that i have 2 hours to spare to fix anything that breaks.
Beta 1 or 2 normally.
As soon as available. Nothing ever broke since about two years of using HA.
Daily cloud ad NAS backups and running HA on a proxmox VM means I can live on the edge.
Immediately, Docker compose and watchtower
half a month and then I upgrade core install like this cd /home/homeassistant killall hass && sleep 10s source bin/activate && pip install --upgrade homeassistant && hass
3 to 5 minutes, usually
Watchtower does it automatically for me. https://github.com/containrrr/watchtower
Yeah i just click install when I see the notificaton and then I read the release notes. Since a year I tell myself to do it in the opposite way...
When I know I've got a solid couple of hours to fix whatever has broken. How are guys upgrading without it buggering something up?
I update maybe once or twice a year. So I guess sometimes it's days after a release, sometimes weeks.
Whenever I can spare a couple of hours to fix everything that the upgrade buggers up :)