UniFi has a very useful feature baked in which allows you to access the command line interface of your UniFi devices.

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Why would you need this?

Let's imagine you have a remote UniFi instance hosted in HostiFi. The client plugs in a new access point and wants to get it adopted within the controller, but for some reason it isn't automatically.

The usual next step is to SSH into the device and then set the set-inform command to adopt it to HostiFi. However, if we are remote then we have no access to the device. This is where the debug console comes in.

Debug console allows us to access the command line interface of a device and then from there, we can initiate an SSH connection to the device we cannot add to HostiFi.

This tool can be used in many ways, such as updating the firmware on a device that cannot be adopted as it is too old and much more.

How to access the debug console

Ubiquiti has only recently added support for the debug console on the new user interface, for that reason we will cover both the new and old versions of the UniFi user interface.

New user interface

First, log into your UniFi instance and select 'Devices'

Next, select the device you need to access the debug console from. Note, the UXG Pro, USG and USG Pro do not support this feature.

Next, in the device pop out panel - click on Settings

Next, click on the 'Manage' drop down, then 'Debug'

Then, the debug window will open and you can access the SSH console for that device.

Old user interface

First, log into your UniFi instance and select 'Devices'

Next, select the device you need to access the debug console from. Note, the UXG Pro, USG and USG Pro do not support this feature.

Next, in the device pop out panel - click on 'Tools'

Then, click on 'Open terminal'

Then, the debug window will open and you can access the SSH console for that device.

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.

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