Migrating devices from The Things Network V2 to The Things Stack
TheThings Network

The Things Network Global Team

Posted on 06-10-2021

As announced at The Things Conference held in January 2021, The Things Network V2 has been upgraded to The Things Stack (V3). As a result, The Things Network V2 is planned to be permanently shut down on December 1st, 2021.

The Things Network V2 is now read-only, which means you no longer can add gateways, applications, and end devices. If your gateways, applications, and end devices are still connected to The Things Network V2, they will be working until December 1st, 2021. Viewing gateway traffic and application data is also disabled on The Things Network V2 console.

In order to continue using your devices and gateways without disruptions, we recommend migrating to The Things Stack as soon as possible. The recommended deadline for migration was October 1st, but you can still migrate until V2 shuts down completely on December 1st.

Migrating to The Things Stack V3 will bring many benefits:

  • Improved UI for managing gateways, devices, applications, users, and organizations.
  • More secure, more scalable.
  • Better distribution of services.
  • Supports all LoRaWAN classes, all LoRaWAN versions (including v1.0.4 and v1.1), all regional parameters specifications.
  • Interoperability with other LoRaWAN networks (supports passive roaming, support for handover roaming in the future).
  • Multicast over class B and C to enable FUOTA.
  • Advanced clustering and load balancing techniques.
  • Richer metadata support.
  • Advanced gRPC, HTTP, and MQTT integrations.
  • Users have the opportunity to use the Global Join Server to store and issue security keys or they can even use a Join server operated by a trusted third party.
  • Packet Broker support for exchanging traffic between other LoRaWAN networks for extending coverage.

How can you migrate from The Things Network V2 to The Things Stack?

End devices can be migrated from The Things Network V2 to The Things Stack using The Things Stack Console or the command-line migration tool. Before migrating any end device, it is worth taking the time to consider the following things:

  • The number of devices you are going to migrate: The Things Stack Console can be used to migrate end devices manually one by one, while the command-line migration tool can be used to migrate a single end device, groups of end devices, or all the end devices in an application. The command-line migration tool is much more convenient if you want to import most of your device's settings from V2.

  • The method your end devices have been activated with the V2: Migrating your devices to The Things Sack gives you a chance to switch it to use OTAA (devices that are provisioned with root keys), as it is a highly recommended method of device activation.

  • If you are going to migrate an active device session: It is highly recommended to migrate end devices by establishing new sessions instead of persisting their active sessions. If you cannot access your devices remotely to trigger them for a new join, in some cases, you might be able to migrate them with their active sessions.

  • The possibility of migrating your gateways: If you cannot migrate your gateways from The Things Network V2 to The Things Stack for the moment, you might use the Packet Broker to route the traffic from The Things Network V2 to The Things Stack (Read Packet Broker Requirements for End Device Migration for more information). Packet Broker is enabled on The Things Network V2 and The Things Stack by default. This is a good way to start your migration and avoid losing your data when the V2 will be shut down on December 1st.

Watch the workshop video on Migrating devices to The Things Stack by Nejra Selimovic, Technical Writer at The Things Industries:

Visit our documentation page for full instructions dedicated to Migrating to The Things Stack

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