Unifi Dream Machine Setup

[StephenPink]

Hi all,

 

Hoping some Unifi gurus on here will be able to help! Have inherited a Unifi WiFi setup, and a Dream Machine SE has been purchased to enable better visibility and monitoring of the WiFi, so that performance/issues can be tracked and addressed more effectively.

 

However, I cannot seem to find out how to set it up, in-line - we have an HPE Core Switch doing all the routing, which then goes out via a Smoothwall. Struggling with getting the network settings correct, where the UDM is not doing DHCP, or routing, and is just monitoring?

 

Not sure if it's even possible! Adopting a test AP also fails.

 

Any help much appreciated - have never used Unifi before, am used to HPE/Aruba.

 

Thanks,

Stephen

[mattpayne]

Hi Stephen, Im not going to add much useful, but The Unifi kit is a lot more user friendly than the HP/Aruba stuff ( I have both) but the Dream machine really doesn't live upto its name in a enterprise environment... I use Cloud key Gen2 controllers, which are great, but run really hot and dont fit my rack, so bought a Dream Machine Pro...

 

Ive used one in a remote office and other than being a sod to upgrade to the latest firmware (going from v1.something to 3.something doesn't work, you have to upgrade incrementally about 4 times) it was a breeze.

 

problem is with existing networks, you cant directly configure its IP address, it needs to have WAN access and act as a router, even if all you want to do is use it as a controller. I cant replace my router and I dont want to double NAT and reconfigure my whole network just to add a controller, so mine is sitting in a corner while i find a way to get round this...

Apparently one bodge is to create a separate VLAN just for the WAN port of the DMP nothing will use it, but it will stop the DMP from having a wet... but then, as you cant directly configure the host IP, it will assign a X.X.X.1 address to its LAN port which, in my case is the same IP as my current gateway so that doesnt work! there is probably some SSH stuff one can do to get round this, but I dont have time or inclination to tackle this just yet, Im only pleased its just a few hundred quid, so not a colossal loss...

[Oaktech]

I'm using a cloudkey at all of my sites (and at home) for visibility beacuse I only need a glorified controller rather than a router. I would suggest that if you can swap to a cloud key that'd be a more appropriate device for what you want to do.

[Davit2005]

Agree, many YouTubers sing praises for Unifi APs and Unifi Switches but some do not recommend them for firewalls for enterprises at all. They are getting better but slow to catch up but they do have good SDN (software defined networking)

[StephenPink]

Thanks all - have managed to get it all behaving now (like @mattpayne was suggesting) the WAN port on one VLAN, the LAN port on another.

 

The reason for the Dream Machine was the traffic identification and monitoring - I didn't think a CloudKey would do that?

 

Cheers