Taking over an exisiting Ubiquiti Unifi Network - Cloud hosting?

[Divaldo]

Hi,

 

We're taking on the management of an exisiting Unifi wireless set up. This is all new to me so I'm just looking for a bit of advice please.

 

I have exports of the current setups (2 different sites). Am I correct in thinking we just need to restore those exports to a new controller, then point the wireless access points at the new inform URL instead? Both sites are miles away so I can't physically get at the APs.

 

If that's correct, can anyone recommend some kind of cloud hosting for the controller? I don't have a spare server or a static IP available for use at the moment.

Will I need 2 controllers, one for each site export?

 

Thanks very much.

[MatthewL]

I have my controller running on a Pi but a low powered Linux machine or Windows will do, create a new site and import the backup in, 1 controller can do both, I have 40+ sites on mine at work which is a Windows box. Doesn't specifically need a full IP, just port forward 3478, 8443 and 8080 (if that's your inform port) and they will connect. Other ports may need to be open if you are doing anything more advanced than manging them such as guest portal etc. I have 1 IP at home and just open up them ports to my controller, cctv going to another server, VPN to another you get the idea.

 

Once new one is up just ssh onto the (admin credentials will be in the controller) run set-inform http://server:8080/inform and should be good to go from there.

[Divaldo]

Brilliant! Great advice, thank you very much.

[Davit2005]

You should only need one controller. I believe you could do a DNS entry for the inform, that would be easier to manage and then you only need to update the DNS entry.

 

Unifi did some updates and the multiple site management disappeared but I believe it is bac now.

 

The controller is only for changes unless you use the captive portal, you can run it on a desktop, cloud key, ubuntu, Pi, etc.

 

A few good youtube links would be Lawrence Systems and CrossTalk solutions.

 

Cloud hosting I am only aware of hostifi but you may get some info on that from Lawrence Systems YouTube channel.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Davit2005

[MatthewL]

The update that Unifi did was for the cloud key not the controller.

 

One to thing to note is install the same controller version as they are on now and import in then do the upgraded to the later version to save any issues.

[FN-GM]

He use the DNS method. Works perfectly. We can provision access points on any site without touching the config on the AP itself. Quick and easy.

 

However these were new access points. I am not sure how it would work if they have the set inform configured manually.

 

There won’t any reason you could SSH into each one and make changes. But I suppose it depends on how many you have.

[XiJ]

We use our own cloud controller, hosted on a Linux machine in our data centre.

 

What we do tend to do is the export site function is the recent controllers. This will prompt you to save a site backup, import that into your controller and the. Ask for your new inform address. It’s so much easier.

It also converts backups from older controller to newer versions.