This guide will go over the steps to install the UniFi Controller, now known as the UniFi Network Application on Ubuntu. For some context, we are using DigitalOcean in this guide, but it will work for most Ubuntu installations.

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1. Pick a server

For smaller installations, up to 100 devices we would recommend picking the $12/month server with 2GB RAM and the Regular SSD. This gives you 50GB of storage which will be enough for most UniFi installations.

2. SSH Key or Password

Next, either choose to use your own SSH key pair or simply use a password. Be aware, DigitalOcean won't send you this password via email, so be sure to keep it safe.

3. Create Droplet

With all that out of the way, go ahead and create the droplet. The server preparation time can take 1-2 mins.

4. Log into the server

Next, we need to log into the server. To do this, click one the 'More' dropdown and then 'Access Console'. You can use ether your own SSH client, such as Terminal in macOS or Termius but you can also use the 'Droplet Console' which is a browser based version. For this guide, we're going to use this.

5. Update packages

Now that you're logged in, we need to run some usual package updates. There will update the packages in the Ubuntu OS.

sudo apt update

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6. Install packages

Next, we need to install some extra tools for the server. openjdk-8-jre-headless - This will install Java 8 , as UniFi requires this to run.

sudo apt install curl haveged gpg openjdk-8-jre-headless

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7. Adding the UniFi Repository (Repo)

Next, we need to download the official repo from Ubiquiti, you can do this by using the following command.

curl https://dl.ui.com/unifi/unifi-repo.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/ubiquiti-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null

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Then run the following command to add the downloaded repo to the sources list

echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ubiquiti-archive-keyring.gpg] https://www.ui.com/downloads/unifi/debian stable ubiquiti' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/100-ubnt-unifi.list > /dev/null

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8. Install Libssl1.1

In this next section, we need to install an older version of LibSSL, as MongoDB requires this run for UniFi. This version of LibSSL can be downloaded with the following command.

wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/o/openssl/libssl1.1_1.1.1f-1ubuntu2_amd64.deb -O libssl1.1.deb

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Run this command to install LibSSL

sudo dpkg -i libssl1.1.deb

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8. Add the MongoDB Repository

Next step is to add the MongoDB repository. The first part of that is to download the GPG key.

curl https://pgp.mongodb.com/server-4.4.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-org-server-4.4-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null

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Next is to download the MongoDB 4.4 repoostiry

echo 'deb [arch=amd64,arm64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-org-server-4.4-archive-keyring.gpg] https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu focal/mongodb-org/4.4 multiverse' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-4.4.list > /dev/null

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9. Install MongoDB 3.6 to Ubuntu

With the MongoDB repoostiry added, we now need to install MongoDB 3.6. To start with, run an update to make sure it knows about the latest repository changes.

sudo apt update

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Next, we can install the MongoDB server to Ubuntu

sudo apt install -y mongodb-org-server

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Once installed, make sure that MongoDB is tol to start up when the server reboots

sudo systemctl enable mongod

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Next, to get MongoDB woken up and ready, run this command

sudo systemctl start mongod

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10. Install UniFi

After all of that, the exciting part is getting the UniFi Controller installed. This command is pretty simple, run this to install UniFi.

sudo apt install unifi

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11. Access UniFi

Before we access UniFi, we need to know what IP address the server has. If you are using DigitalOcean, it'll be in your dashboard otherwise run the following command to show the IP addresses.

hostname -I

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Next, go to the server IP address and replace IPADDRESS with the IP address for your sever. Be sure to put https:// before it and :8443 at the end.

https://IPADDRESS:8443

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12. Setup UniFi

Next, the UniFi wizard will run through the setup with you, log in with your UI Account, make a local account and get devices adopted.

HostiFi

HostiFi provides hosting for both Ubiquiti and TP-Link software-defined-networking (SDN) applications, with servers for UniFi, UISP and Omada. We also offer professional networking consulting, with HostiFi Pro.