Mac newbie – upgrade from 6 to 7

Hello,
I would like to use an Aeon ZW097 Dry Contact sensor in Indigo.
I'm still running 6.1.6. I see support for the ZW097 was added to Indigo 7.

I could proceed in one of two ways:
1) Since 6.1.6 has worked flawlessly for a year, and I hate to fix it if it ain't broke, I could stick with Indigo 6 if there is a way to get the ZW097 to work in I6. The sensor shows up as a "routing slave". I think what I want is a "binary sensor". Is there any simple way to transform the sensor into a "binary sensor" within Indigo 6?

2) Probably the best thing to do is to bite the bullet and upgrade to Indigo 7 since I see this new version supports the ZW097. The problem here is I am a complete Mac newbie. I have been working with Windows for 20+ years, but only use a Mac to run Indigo.

Is there a tutorial for upgrading from Indigo 6 to Indigo 7? - Just enough to give me that warm and fuzzy feeling that I'm not jumping ahead with my eyes shut.

What should I expect to encounter during the upgrade process?
What is an overview of the steps I need to perform to have things go smoothly?

I'm thinking really basic stuff – maybe something similar to:

(I write the following using Windows conventions, and I'm just guessing here)

Download Indigo 7 from… to your Mac downloads folder.
Be sure to have your Indigo 7 key (or trial key) and your username and password for Indigo. Get these from…
Stop Indigo 6. From the menu click File – Stop Indigo.
Double-click on the Indigo.dmg (?) File in your downloads directory. This will start the installation process.
(Now I'm really just guessing) It will take approximately 10 minutes to install and during the installation process you will see…
When installation says it's complete, click on the Finder (?) Icon at the bottom and click on the Indigo item in the dialog that pops up. Enter your password.

I currently have the ZW097 installed in Indigo 6. It shows up as a "routing slave". Should I remove this and exclude the sensor before upgrading to 7 or will 7 recognize it during the upgrade and support it?

Thanks much,
Barry.

Do a time machine backup first

the rest is pretty much as you described

Do a time machine backup first

the rest is pretty much as you described

Thanks, that sounds like a good idea. I'm sure I can Google how to do a "Time Machine" backup.

I read further down in the "Getting Started" support page and found some additional information.

Having almost no Mac experience makes doing anything on the Mac a challenge.

Barry.

Here is the documentation how-to upgrade:

http://wiki.indigodomo.com/doku.php?id=indigo_7_documentation:getting_started

About TimeMachine: get a USB external HDD, attach it to your Mac, format it in HFS+ (Mac filesystem), then the Finder will ask you if you want to use it as a TimeMachine backup storage.
If not, got to "System Settings/ TimeMachine" and select your external HDD as a target.
It will then start the backup in 2 minutes.

Good luck!

Yassi

I just did an upgrade from 6 to 7 and following the directions it worked great.

A few tips:

General suggestion - as a Mac "newbie" you should have good backup procedures in place first. Everyone has different preferences, but rather than Time Machine (which is convenient, but sometimes problematic), I prefer to clone my system hard drive. I purchased two inexpensive USB 3.0 external hard drives (Western Digital 2 TB Passports), and I run a disk clone utility called "Carbon Copy Cloner". I have automated task run every night to clone the entire system and about once a month I swap the external drives so I have a disconnected "air gap"d external hard disk that is no more than 1 month old. The advantage of cloning is that it creates a bootable drive which you can actually boot from if your system drive is completely dead.

I also use a cloud based backup, CrashPlan, so I have an offsite backup as an extra safety measure. I prefer CrashPlan, but people have good look also with Back Blaze. For around $5/month, it really is worth it.

Indigo data backup:

Absolutely follow the migration instructions to make a copy of the Indigo 6 library folder first. It is not that big (at least in my case) and will fit on a decent USB flash drive or Dropbox-style cloud service. This takes very little time and removes any concerns you have about rolling back if you have any trouble.

Co-existance:

When you install Indigo 7, it co-exists separately from Indigo 6. Both apps will be on your system, so make sure you pay attention to which one you are launching if you keep both around for a brief period. Each app will have all it's data in a different library folder - see the Indigo docs for details on how to find the folder.

The only thing to be aware of is that the first time you run Indigo 7, it will copy your existing Indigo 6 database and convert it to the Indigo 7 format and store it in the new library. This means if you run Indigo 7, make some changes, and then need to go back to Indigo 6, any changes you made will not be converted back into the Indigo 6 database.

If you have custom graphics/control pages, follow the directions in the upgrade instructions to copy those files into the Indigo 7 library.


Operating System Re-Build:

Unlike the Windows operating system, OS X (now macOS) does not seem to suffer from the same kind of OS "bit rot" where after a while the OS seems slower and slower from configuration changes, driver updates, security patches, etc. and the only solution is to wipe the hard drive and re-install a fresh copy of Windows ("bare metal restore" or a "Nuke & Pave" procedure).

That said, most of us with Macs still tend to "Nuke & Pave" once in a while (every year or so). If not to cure "bit rot", but to eliminate all the extra stuff we have loaded/unloaded and experimented with on our systems over time. The easiest way to have a clean minimal system is to start fresh and only load the apps, utilities, etc. when you need them instead of in advance.

Upgrading from Indigo 6 to Indigo 7 is a good time to consider a "Nuke & Pave" and possibly to upgrade from El Capitan to Sierra. Here is what I did:

1. Full backup of current system twice to external USB drives. Put one away as an "archive", booted from the second one as an external drive and verified it runs as a "hot backup" if needed.

2. While booted from the "hot backup" completely erased the main system drive and installed Sierra as a bare metal "Nuke & Pave".

3. Verified the operating system working fine, installed minimal utilities (CrashPlan cloud backup).

4. Copied my existing Indigo 6 library files from my backup and re-installed Indigo 6. As this point, I have a clean system running on the new macOS Sierra with my existing Indigo 6. I ran this for a few days to make sure everything was working - both the new OS and all my Indigo schedules, triggers, etc. that sometimes only run once or twice of the course of a few days.

5. Made a backup again, of both the system and the Indigo 6 library files, then installed Indigo 7 following the instructions.

6. Voilà! Now I have Indigo 7 running on Sierra. For me, everything when smoothly, but I had full backups and rollback capability ready each step of the way if I ran into problems.


Operational changes:

Indigo 7 includes a subscription service for updates, and also includes free access to the Reflector service for remote access. If you weren't using the Reflector, read the docs and set it up as it a convenient feature. (I was using a VPN, but using the Reflector is an easier option).

The user interface of Indigo 7 looks virtually identical to Indigo 6, so there is no real learning curve or "upgrade shock" of everything looking different or commands being in different places.

Thanks for your comments. I will be sure to follow the "Getting Started" and your upgrade suggestions closely.

Your comment about "Bit Rot": I use my Mac Mini only for Indigo , but it's been up and running for almost a year with zero problems. I can guarantee you Windows could never do that.

Barry.

Totally agree!

When moving over from the PC, I started with just a Mac Mini. I "overloaded" it running Indigo, OS X Server (File server, VPN Server), Xcode (actual development work), Microsoft Office Suite (client work), VirtualBox (Windows VM), tons of apps & utilities and never had a single issue.

I have since expanded to multiple Macs, so now my Mac Mini was re-built (per above) to be on Sierra and only running Indigo. (I have another Mac that I use for VPN/file server and a 3rd Mac for "production" work that pays the bills.)

A "long time ago", I ran a small web hosting company on the Microsoft stack. Everything was on Windows 2003 servers (about 50 of them) and the only way we achieved sanity was to re-boot every server once per day. That gave us stability and make it workable, but not convenient.