Unifi is a managed wifi system. It allows for multiple Ubiquiti Unifi Access Points to be controlled and managed by a central control software system , or Software defined networking.
Links:
The unifi system contains the following components:
The controller software manages the APs and various Client settings. The software is on a device on the network. This device must exist on the Local Area network of the Unifi AP's. This controller can come in a few different forms:
IMPORTANT This device must be on at all times and exist on the network at all times. If it does not, the APs will will allow access with or without a password, and will do traffic shaping, but the portal will not exist. The Unifi AP's do not work like standard ubnt devices and can not be logged into via a web portal to control, though they can be accessed via ssh.
These are simple instructions udpated in 2019 to download the unifi controller software manually. You can find the link for the most current version on the website
wget unifiCurrent.deb
You should update and upgrade the repositories and packages
sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade
Now the package can be manually installed and will perform the needed dependencies.
sudo dpkg -i unifi_sysvinit_all.deb sudo apt install -f
Once installed, be sure to enabled it for startup
sudo systemctl enable unifi
There may be some other steps below that were performed AFTER these three commands listed directly above. Might take some tiral and error.
Here are some other ways of installing tha are either old, not fully tested, or did not work properly.
Very good instructions are here:https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/220066768-UniFi-How-to-Install-Update-via-APT-on-Debian-or-Ubuntu
here is a summary of the type of commands you do:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/100-ubnt.list
deb http://www.ubnt.com/downloads/unifi/debian testing ubiquiti deb http://www.ubnt.com/downloads/unifi/debian oldstable ubiquiti deb http://www.ubnt.com/downloads/unifi/debian stable ubiquiti
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv 06E85760C0A52C50 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unifi
The controller acts as a daemon and web host. It can be accessed either:
Cloud access
The cloud access software can now be accessed with both the local controller software (as of 4.3) and Cloud key. This allows you to connect your controller, wherever it is, to the Ubiquiti server. You must have a registered account. You can use the same for forums. This account will be remotely linked to your controller. Once you have it linked, you can then remotely manage your unifi system. Multiple unifi systems can be managed from the cloud access.
Ubiquit makes a wide range of indoor and outdoor Unifi AP's and other unifi things like cameras and phones. Here are some tips about setting up.
Once you adopt a new unifi, it will gain the user name and password that was set up for the contoller. This is very important when doing some of the steps below
If you want to move a unifi AP to a different controller, you need to follow these steps. This is especially important when setting up a new unifi on a network without DHCP
NOTE!! Although this method did work at one time, it also failed on a second try. It may be that you will need to set the DHCP network below the main controller but where it can ping the main controller. Then You could actually try to adopt the unifi in a more traditional sense.
You can read more here: https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi-Wireless/Adopting-your-Existing-APs-to-set-inform-to-L3-Controller/td-p/471517
If you want to edit the portal, you will need to first enable the portal and editing it. Then a folder structure will be created to access index.html and other files for editing the visual look
There is a single index.html file that holds most of the information for the different web portals. So if you want to edit the no auth page, or voucher page, you edit this. It is also important to know that there is a folder called “portal” which contains all the files needed for the web hosting. You can make a compressed version of this folder as a backup if you have multiple things you are editing.
To view the splash page even after accepting terms go to:
To change the splash page you Need to edit the master index file or other files associated to it. You need to access files and/or folders of location of webpages:
Access the directory for the main files:
Once you have access to the folder structure
Most of the Main data for the unifi is located in:
Backup is simple:
https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/226218448-UniFi-How-to-Configure-Auto-Backup
Basically you have to go to the unifi setting and at the bottom is the autobackup settings, from there you can set the frequency. If you want to transfer the file to another device, you can use a cron job.
Work in progress
These are things untested by the writer of this article
log /usr/lib/unifi/logs/server.log /usr/lib/unifi/logs/mongod.log
If you are having issues with login, like you forgot your password, you can reset the basic config by renaming the file that holds initial setup. Then restart the service. Here is how to do it on linux:
sudo mv /var/lib/unifi /var/lib/unifi.old sudo systemctl restart unifi
If you can ssh into device you can remove its adoption with some commands. THis is helpful when the device is difficult to physically reach.
ssh set-defualt
In order to have a separate DHCP server that Clients get when attached from AP's you need the Ubiquiti “Unifi secure gateway”. Otherwise you have to use the DHCP of the gateway the unifi is attached to. The APs, nor the controller software will not give out DHCP on their own.
You can have the AP's connect to another AP for its uplink. THis is called “wireless uplink” in the ubiquiti nomenclature. To do this, you can follow this guide. We will have unifi A as the Master AP and unifi B as the device with the wireless uplink to unifi A
Done! Different models might have different compatibility. You can only have 4 sub APs off of one, and sub APs can not host other sub APs.
Here is a lot of information about Wireless Uplink: https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/205146000-UniFi-Set-up-UAPs-in-wireless-uplink-topology
With a unifi mesh device, It is important to know that the wireless uplink uses the 5ghz channel and is not available with 2ghz. So if you use an omni 2ghz, and disable 5, you will not get wireless uplink.
Here is some information about some of the restrictions, with 2 specific points quoted.
https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi-Wireless/UniFi-Mesh-vs-AirMax-Rockets-Bullets-for-open-mine/m-p/1988550/highlight/true#M237441
07-12-2017 10:43 AM rebelwireless UAP-AC-M units with AM-2G15-120, AM-2G16-90, AMO-2G10, or AMO-2G13 antennas may be a good choice. These are used by many people for outdoor coverage. These antennas are tuned to 2.4Ghz. The 5Ghz radio will work with them but expect gain to be significantly lower than a 5Ghz antenna. 07-12-2017 01:30 PM Dave-D No: you should not use these 2.4GHz antennas as if they were dual-band--they are not. If you must use these, you should turn off 5GHz entirely. There will be no uplink service available. Dave