LEARN HOW TO INSTALL THE UNIFI CONTROLLER VERSION 7 ON A LINUX UBUNTU 20.04 LTS VM
Unifi produces some of the leading wired and wireless network products, network security, video and perimeter security solutions. One of the most widely used software used to configure unifi devices is the unif network controller aka unifi network application. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create setup a linux ubuntu 20.04 LTS virtual machine, install ubuntu system and package updates as well as configure the network interface. You will also learn how to install unifi ubuntu dependancies, the unifi controller software package for ubuntu as well as how to connect to the unifi controller web based dashboard. At the end of the video we’l quickly complete the unifi controller post installation setup process.
REQUIREMENTS
In order to complete this tutorial, the following is a list of items that may be needed or required. Please ensure to have these items ready before taking implementation action on this tutorial to ensure success:
1) A desktop or laptop with 4GB RAM, a dual core processor and 50 GB of free disk space
2) The LINUX UBUNTU 20.04 LTS disk image file and oracle VM VirtualBox.
3) A terminal program such as PUTTY to connect to the LINUX UBUNTU server via SSH
4) If you decide to deploy in the cloud we recommend that you deploy on the AWS CLOUD COMPUTING platform (AWS LIGHTSAIL)
5) The UNIFI CONTROLLER installation files for UBUNTU (more details in the tutorial)
OVERVIEW
1) Open VIRTUALBOX and create a new LINUX UBUNTU virtual machine
2) Connect to the UBUNTU virtual machine and install ubuntu updates and package upgrades
3) Install the UNIFI NETWORK CONTROLLER on the UBUNTU virtual machine
4) Open the UNIFI CONTROLLER web based dashboard and complete the post installation setup
STEP 1: OPEN VIRTUALBOX AND CREATE A NEW LINUX UBUNTU 20.04 LTS VIRTUAL MACHINE.
1) Open VIRTUALBOX and click on MACHINE > NEW or click on the NEW button on the VIRTUALBOX menu bar to open the virtual machine creation WIZARD. Type in a new for the virtual machine (e.g UNIFI CONTROLLER VM) set the operating system type to LINUX and the operating system version to UBUNTU 64 BIT and click on CONTINUE.
2) Next, set the amount of memory to allocate to the virtual machine to 2048 MB (2GB) of RAM or more and click on NEXT. On the HARD DISK window, select the CREATE A VIRTUAL HARD DISK NOW option and click on CREATE.
3) You now need to select a HARD DISK FILE TYPE. From the list of available options click on the VDI (VIRTUALBOX DISK IMAGE) and click on CONTINUE. Click on the CREATE A VIRTUAL HARD DISK NOW option and click on CONTINUE.
On the STORAGE ON PHYSICAL DISK window, select the DYNAMICALLY ALLOCATED option and click on CONTINUE. On the FILE SIZE AND LOCATION window, set the size of the virtual hard disk to 50GB or more and click on CREATE.
4) Once the virtual machine create process is complete, right click on the virtual machine and click on SETTINGS. Click on the NETWORK tab and set ADAPTER 1 to BRIDGED ADAPTER and select a network interface with a working INTERNET CONNECTION. Click on OK then right click on the VIRTUAL MACHINE and click on START > NORMAL START.
A popup message will be displayed prompting you to select a virtual or physical disk suitable for starting a computer, Click on the FILE SELECTION button, browse to the folder where the UBUNTU ISO file is located, select it and click on OPEN. Click on the UBUNTU ISO file, click on CHOOSE and click on START.
From HERE you now need to complete the LINUX UBUNTU server installation process. If you are not sure how to do so, click HERE to learn now.
STEP 2: Connect to the UBUNTU virtual machine and install ubuntu updates and package upgrades
sudo apt-get update apt-get upgrade
6) Next run the following commands to check the ip address of the ubuntu server and to connec to the server via ssh using the MAC or LINUX terminal application:
ip add list
ssh server-username@ip-address-of-server
If you are using a WINDOWS pc, you will have to download the PUTTY app, install the app on your PC and type in the IP address of the server on the HOST field and click on CONNECT. Also ensure that the port you are connecting to is SSH port 22.
7) One of the prerequisites for installing the UNIFI NETWORK CONTROLLER on UBUNTU is OPENJDK. Run the following command to install OPENJDK on the UBUNTU server:
sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk -y
8) Next run the following commands to install additional software packages that the UNIFI network controller needs to run as well as the UNIFI ubuntu repository to the UBUNTU server:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ca-certificates apttransport-https
echo ‘deb https://www.ui.com/downloads/unifi/debian stable ubiquiti’| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/100-ubnt-unifi.list
sudo apt-key adv –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv 06E85760C0A52C50.
9) Next run the following commands to install the UNIFI NETWORK CONTROLLER package and to configure it to start up automatically each time the UBUNTU virtual machine starts up:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unifi -y
systemctl unifi on
sudo service unifi start
sudo service unifi status
10) Next, open a new web browser tab and type in the IP address of the UBUNTU server in the address bar and append the port number 8443. The URL should look like this:
https://ip-address-of-ubuntu-server:8443
When you press ENTER you will get a connection error informing you that YOUR CONNECTION IS NOT PRIVATE. This happens because the UNIFI NETWORK CONTROLLER ships with a self signed SSL certificates something that most web browsers dont like.
To proceed with the connection click on the ADVANCED button and click on PROCEED WITH THE CONNECTION.
11) On the NAME YOUR CONTROLLER page, type in a descriptive name to identify the UNIFI CONTROLLER, it can be the name of the place where you are deploying the controller
12) On the ADVANCED REMOTE AND LOCAL ACCESS page, disable the USE YOUR UBIQUITI ACCOUNT FOR LOCAL ACCESS option then type in a USERNAME and PASSWORD and click on NEXT.
13) Click on the ENABLE AUTO BACKUP option to ensure that the UNIFI CONTROLLER automatically backs up its configuration and click on NEXT.
14) The UNIFI CONTROLLER will run a scan of your network in an attempt to detect any existing unifi devices such as access points that need to be adopted and configured. If any devices are found they will appear on this page.
15) On the WIFI SETUP page, type in a WIFI NAME and WIFI PASSWORD on the spaces provided and enable the COMBINE 2GHZ and 5GHz NETWORK NAMES into one
16) On the REVIEW CONFIGURATION page, you will see all your selections that you made on previous pages and if there are changes you would like to make you can browse back to those pages. If there are no changes, select your country on the COUNTRY OR TERRITORY drop down and select your TIMEZONE.
17) Once the configuration process is complete you should now see a dashboard that looks like the dashboard shown below and you can now start adopting more UNIFI devices to your network and making configuration changes as you wish
We hope this tutorial has been information and would like to thank you for reading.
