Should I change /dev/ttyAMC0 to a "by-id" name?

[GrizzlyAK]

I've been told that in order to avoid potential problems with HAOS reassigning USB ports during restarts, or after power loss, etc., that I should be using "by-id" port names, not the HW names. First, is this true? I've not had a problem to date with this to date. And, second, can I just retrieve this from the All Hardware info in HA and replace it in the Settings in ZWaveJS-UI (or would that be bad)?

This came up as I was asking about restoring my HA installation from a failed SD Card, by using a fresh HAOS flash on a new card and either going through the onboarding and then restoring a backup, or, if I can get the backup on before onboarding (SSH?), go directly to restoring from a backup. In either case, I am expecting that my Zwave network would come back up as it was (same stick, HAOS/HA config as before), and really hope that is the case. Old threads (elsewhere) indicate that all the node names, etc., were changed under such circumstances. I want to avoid that at all cost, so I'm just trying to get ahead of it by preparing and knowing exactly what to do when it happens.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[robertsLando]

I've been told that in order to avoid potential problems with HAOS reassigning USB ports during restarts, or after power loss, etc., that I should be using "by-id" port names, not the HW names. First, is this true?

Yeah that's true, the reason is that when driver starts it performs soft resets that may cause issues if the usb path used is not 'static' (the /dev/tty path are alias path that could change.

And, second, can I just retrieve this from the All Hardware info in HA and replace it in the Settings in ZWaveJS-UI (or would that be bad)?

I cannot answer to this as I don't use HA, btw I added a guide here to discover it

Old threads (elsewhere) indicate that all the node names, etc., were changed under such circumstances. I want to avoid that at all cost, so I'm just trying to get ahead of it by preparing and knowing exactly what to do when it happens.

In order to be 100% sure nothing changes or at least that you can always recover you have to do a backup of the store directory and also an nvm backup, even better if you enable automatic backup from settings. Store backups backup all the file needed like settings.json, nodes.json, scenes.json, users.json and all driver jsonl files. You can do a store backup directly from store explorer by pressing on the floating action button and pressing on backup. For the nvm backup just go to control panel, advanced actions, nvm backup.

Once you have both backups you can go on, at least for what is concerning zwave side you are ok. For hass side I dunno if you have to backup something but for sure @kpine knows.

Let me know how this goes

[AlCalzone]

saving the settings will cause Z-Wave JS UI to restart the driver

[robertsLando]

My question was really about whether it is OK in zwavejs-ui, in the settings (as shown below) to simply change that setting to be the "by-id" string instead of the /dev/tty/ACM0

Like @AlCalzone said that is just the path the driver uses to open the serial port so even if you input it wrongly nothing is lost, you will just see errors that the port cannot be opened but once you input it correctly it just works as before.

So I can just download these from the backups folder in store, right?

Yes, right!

One thing that springs to mind is if a new zwvejs-ui install might wipe my Z-Stick controller, or rename everything, and if so, will a restore of the zw Store/NVM restore all of that (or will I have to rename everything). Speaking of, there is a Backup section, but I don't see a Restore section. I guess I need to go read the Documentation again. It's been a while.

You can restore a backup directly from store ui, just press on the floating action button and select restore, it will prompt you to select the desired restore file and it will do the rest. This is for the store restore, for the nvm restore you have to do that from control panel > advanced actions > restore nvm.

And yeah in case something wrong happens you just have to do a clean install of zui, open the ui, do the store restore and, if you replaced your stick for some reason, also do the NVm restore. But if your stick is the same you don't have to restore the nvm, that is just to recover stick memory

BTW, after much research, I finally just relented and gave GH one of my seldom-used CCs so that if they lose it, it won't be too painful. I also upped your sponsorship, and restored @AlCalzone 's too. Did that yesterday.

Saw that yesterday, thanks so much for that @GrizzlyAK 🙏🏼 ❤️

[GrizzlyAK]

OK, all that makes me feel a lot more prepared in case of trouble. Thanks guys! Keep up the great work. Cheers.

[AlCalzone]

Oh, thanks a lot for the updated sponsorship! Were the alternatives that accept PayPal not an option?

[GrizzlyAK]

I looked at all the options, but there was a fee that took away from the contribution. Patreon was the absolute worst. Yikes. Daniel indicated that GitHub takes nothing, and I assumed that meant no CC processing fees either (might be wrong), but that seemed like the best option to get the most to you guys without a middle man getting a cut.