AM Server HW Swap

[ChrisM]

Hi I'm looking for best practices / suggestions on how to replace the android running AM and Automation on Drive.  

My existing AM server is controlling about 110 devices, and has numerous rules running but appears to have an intermittent hardware fault.  So I've purchased a Samsung Galaxy A7 to replace it. 

Any tips would be appreciated.  

Thanks

Chris

[MikeP 4 MPP]

I think the settings are pretty straightforward, just follow the steps on my site.  For rules you can either use AutomationOnDrive to back them up on drive and restore them on the new device, or use AM to export them to a file, copy it to the device and restore from there.  You can use a different location name in AoD to keep them separate.

The trickiest part is usually the phone/tablet specific settings they've added to preserve battery, memory, data, and prevent long running apps.  You'll need to look for anything in the battery manager, device health (samsung usually has this), wifi manager, data manager, and the app manager (long running tasks).

I've had a lot of success with plugging the charger into a smart plug (I've got quite a few spare for testing!).  I set AM using the phone devices to monitor the charging percent, when it gets low (I use 25%) turn on the charger to charge it back up to a useful amount (like 95%).  I add a periodic rule to turn the charger SetMomentary On for 30s every 10 minutes (condition with the battery is not charging) - tweak the the time to prevent the device from going to sleep.  The down side is if the smart plug goes inaccessible the AM server will eventually die with no power.  But it really helps with older devices where the battery can swell, and with devices that keep trying to sleep.  I notify myself via email if the charger stops responding or if there's a NoActivity trigger from the charger for 1hr, or the phone battery drops below 20%.

[ChrisM]

Hi Mike thanks for the tip.  Just completed the swap today.  Very straight forward and no issues.  

Here is the process I followed in case it is of use to anyone.

1. Backed up AM rules using AutomationOnDrive
2. Disabled WiFi on the existing AM server
3. Downloaded Automation Manager, AutomationOnDrive, and IFTTT to the new tablet (Galaxy Tab A7 Lite SM-T220 Android 11)
4. Opened AM preferences and set
   1. TP Link polling to 1 sec
5. Opened AM Server Settings and set
   1. Enabled AM Server rules
   2. Enabled "No AM Server Widget"
   3. Added the AM Server Widget to the home screen anyway
   4. HTTP REST Port to 4030
   5. Allowed all permissions that popped up
6. Opened AutomationOnDrive and named the drive location to match the previous AOD instance, and then restored my rules.
7. Changed the following Android settings;
   1. Battery and device care > Battery > Disabled power saving
   2. Battery and device care > Battery > Background usage limits > Disabled "Put apps to sleep"
   3. Apps > Selected AutomationManager > battery > Optimize battery usage >  Turned off optimization for AutomationManager, AutomationOnDrive, and IFTTT

Those were all of the Samsung settings I could find that would seem to shut down AM server but I'll see how this works and post here if I find other settings.

Thanks

Chris