Feb 10, 2018 - The script I have created will set up an UniFi Controller on GCP with these extras. Dynamic DNS support to help you set up the domain name. If only Ubiquiti would make their software compatible with current Java. A quick tutorial showing the UniFi Version 5 Controller, starting with Installation, then proceeding to Setup Wizard, where a sample UniFi Device (AP) is adopted & managed (on the same Local Area.
I recently moved to a new company and we are rebuilding everything from scratch. Ubiquiti was the best option for the WiFi so now I am trying to find out the best practice for the deployment. Just fyi our access switches are HPE 1950 48G PoE+ and we have 5 buildings, the main area with 3 and the other 2 are 300-500m away. We will begin with 5 AC PROs in the main area. The new network has 6-7 VLANs and the WiFi will have several SSIDs for the Staff, Guests etc Each AP won't have to handle more than 40 Users so I guess we will not face any problem with that.
Will I need PoE injectors? I think not as our switches are 802.3at compatible. USG is essential? If Yes, Pro will be the best solution? Which is the recommended OS to install UniFi Controller, on Windows Server 2016 or Linux (CentOS / Debian)? Is there any advantages with Linux server?
Are there any other tools / software which will help me monitoring/configuring the whole setup? Thank you very much in advance!! You should not need an injector with the pro line. You do with the standard line. USG is not required at all. As far as the controller, it can go anywhere you want.
I've thrown it on an owners workstation on a small company that didn't have a server for it to go on. They weren't doing guest portals or anything that would require the controller to even be running after initial setup. I've always run it on Windows because that's typically what's been available at the sites I've deployed it in. If no server is available and you need the controller running all the time, you could also look at the cloud key.
Playmobit wrote: I recently moved to a new company and we are rebuilding everything from scratch. Ubiquiti was the best option for the WiFi so now I am trying to find out the best practice for the deployment. Just fyi our access switches are HPE 1950 48G PoE+ and we have 5 buildings, the main area with 3 and the other 2 are 300-500m away. We will begin with 5 AC PROs in the main area. The new network has 6-7 VLANs and the WiFi will have several SSIDs for the Staff, Guests etc Each AP won't have to handle more than 40 Users so I guess we will not face any problem with that. Will I need PoE injectors?
I think not as our switches are 802.3at compatible. USG is essential?
If Yes, Pro will be the best solution? Which is the recommended OS to install UniFi Controller, on Windows Server 2016 or Linux (CentOS / Debian)? Is there any advantages with Linux server? Are there any other tools / software which will help me monitoring/configuring the whole setup?
Thank you very much in advance!! You don’t need PoE Injectors with the AP AC Pros as they work with any PoE switches that advertise the correct voltage. USG is not needed for them to be setup. Recommended OS for me has been Debian as they do not have Fedora or CentOS officially server. Ubiquiti Unifi software is the only software you will need. I've done Unifi on a Raspberry Pi at home.
I would not do it at the office. It's a really easy setup on Ubuntu if you don't want to go Windows.
I also have a USG at the house. You don't need it to run the APs. And frankly, you only need the Unifi server for the initial setup, and making changes. It's nice to have there for monitoring, but if it crashes or anything, your APs will still keep chugging along without it.
![Setup Setup](https://nguvu.org/images/171102-022-unifi-set-ntp.png)
You should should be fine without PoE injectors, but every Ubiquiti AP I've ever bought came with them anyway, so even of you do need them, you will have them. The USG is going to give a few extras like WAN throughput and offers DPI, but even the APs by themselves are going to offer most of the insights you'll need. If you're already monitoring the network, I don't see a whole lot of reason to introduce a USG. I prefer to set up and run the controller in Ubuntu server as mentioned above. It's super easy to do and fairly painless to update. Was kind of a bear getting the first external SSL cert imported into it, but it's not strictly necessary to even do anyway.
UAP-AC-Pros run just fine on 48v PoE. The newer LRs are actually capable of running on 48v or the older 24v Ubnt standard as well. I think they're stealthily changing it over so they conform with the rest of the industry. There's also the Cloud key if you want a more appliance approach.
![Unifi setup software Unifi setup software](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125437690/115372327.jpg)
We've got a plant with 10 of the AC Pro APs, maybe 75 users and the Cloud key has worked fine. Make sure it's on a UPS. The nice thing about the Cloud Key is that the UBNT folks control the whole system. With installing the controller on a 'normal' operating system (even Linux) there have been cases where the OS vendor updates screwed up the controller.
As I recall Java and MongoDB were the components that got out of synch with what the controller was expecting. I'm still disappointed in the USG, and continually relieved I choose the pfSense line instead. The Ubiquiti Wifi devices are great, I use them often. The Ubiquiti switches are pretty good but a small learning curve to use the Unifi line of switches over the EdgeSwitch line. But that USG seems to have continual problems for anyone with anything vaguely resembling a mixed/complex network. Have a skim-read of the first 2 pages of their Switching forums and you'll get a good general feel. On saying that, if you want the USG just for visual metrics, no problem.
I simply recommend to research that particular item carefully. On another note, I normally use the Ubuntu Server 16.04 for the controller, very stable. But the CloudKey has its benefits also; I use both products - although I recommend to use the CloudKey with an external power source instead of PoE as the database can easily be corrupted from a sudden power loss; I power my CloudKeys from my UPS directly instead of a PoE switch. I have run the Unifi software on Windows, Linux, and a Cloud Key.
My favorite is Linux. Windows is a bit of a pain and only wants to install in the user profile. That's not as big a deal if you're the only IT person, but if there's more than 1 of you it complicates support. Linux doesn't have that issue.
Updates on Windows are somewhat more difficult than on Linux, though not terrible. Linux is just super easy. The Cloud Key has the easiest updates of all, but it has some definite limitations to the size of your install.
Also, Cloud Keys do not like having power go out on them - we have had a Cloud Key need reconfigured after a power outage. All of that to say, I most certainly recommend using linux. As others have mentioned, if you're not using Unifi to authenticate a captive portal then you can turn off the Unifi software without much impact.
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Post pictures or links to unreleased products or items under NDA. When in doubt, contact the mods and ask. Some Helpful Links. Following the steps here: I setup my new Raspberry Pi 3 B+ with the Unifi Controller, and ported the Site from a Windows PC that was running it before. The install went well, and the web access is snappy when accessed from another machine.
As the Raspberry Pi still had plenty of computing bandwidth left, I also setup Pi-Hole to run on it as well. I'm absolutely stunned that Pi-Hole (with the standard blacklists) is blocking 20% of my DNS requests across my network. Even with 75 devices on my network (phones, PCs, IoT devices, etc.), I have not noticed any speed drop.and the Raspberry Pi CPU usage is staying under 30%. Very impressed.
For the record, I also added a PoE hat and a case with a fan (as the Raspberry Pi CPU temp was hitting the 70 C range occasionally). With the case with the fan, the CPU temp stays under 45 C. I do the exact same, I also have the UniFi Controller, also Pi-Hole installed on my raspberry pi, and the PoE adapter creating my own cloud key:P. To reduce memory usage use Raspbian Lite and if you really want the latest version of Java I suggest you sudo echo 'deb cosmic main' tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webupd8team-java.list sudo apt install dirmngr sudo apt-key adv -keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com -recv-keys EEA14886 sudo apt install oracle-java8-installer sudo apt remove oracle-java8-jdk.