Unifi Setup

[Mike McCall]

Small farm in remote location with new WISP. Only a couple of machines to deal with. Going with a Unifi USG & AC Lite AP.

In an effort to look semi-intelligent I did the initial setup/configuration in the office before taking it down and boxing everything back up last night. Set everything back up this morning to verify and made all the connections and plugged both the devices back into the power like I had them the night before.

Initially both devices appeared to come up, except the data lights on LAN 1 did not. The USG had lost connection to the internet and the AP failed to be seen at all (though I could connect via WIFI as before). Changing cables made no difference. Disconnecting/reconnecting the AP from the USG port made no difference. Finally reset both devices and started over to get everything working again.

I'd really like to avoid all that when I get onsite. So, is there something I'm missing in this. Is there a proper way to shut them down like unplug the AP power, then unplug the USG? Should I plug in the USG and let it fully start before plugging in the AP? Could I have missed the proper sequence and done this?

 

[GreyWolf]

Might find something on the schematic here that was missed...stuck on outside work for a few hours (Can't complain finally a day of heat and sun) if there is anything else missing I'll get on it the moment I get back in the house.

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/arti...-Set-Up-your-Cloud-Key-and-UAP-for-beginners-

 

[Mike McCall]

Thanks. I think what I did was not let the USG fully boot before plugging in the AP. Might be wrong, but it makes sense to me.

So, I've reconfigured both devices and saved the backup to a thumb-drive. The plan onsite is to boot the USG before the AP. Then install the controller onto the local PC, log into the controller and then restore the configuration. The only thing that should change is the WAN IP. Should be simple...

 

[GreyWolf]

Rooting for ya! and yes a non full boot on some devices they get finicky heck one client of mine if that poor IP camera system doesn't have her bottle of milk (aka her ups power supply) she will throw a tantrum

 

[Mike McCall]

Yeah, I plugged them into power at the same time this morning. Won't do that again since I really do know better.

 

[GreyWolf]

It happens you hope that the boxes will communicate with each other and do frequent requests to make sure the devices work in harmony but we're not there yet and as long as old tech sticks around we're gonna have to keep to our routines of doing it in cycles.

 

[VISA MC]

Do you know what the setup is on the WAN side? We have a farm client as well and in order to use our own USG, we had to specifically request a DMARC to be setup. They wanted to manage everything inside the site and on the WAN side.

 

[nerd2u]

Don't forget you can login to both devices locally without a controller running to see what's up with them.

If you set the wan info correctly you should be able to simply plug and play.



Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[Mike McCall]

Easy peasy. Went onsite and saw their WISP installed Ubiquity gear as well. Connected the USG and let it boot completely. Connected the AP and let it boot. Installed the controller on the local machine and restored the settings from the backup on my thumb drive. Worked perfectly.

I just got lazy and plugged them both in at the same time this morning. More coffee before starting work!

 

[GreyWolf]

"My ultimate repair tool : Coffee If coffee can't fix it, It's a serious problem."

My golden rule to live by...

Now this stuff ain't bad to start the day.

 

[Mike McCall]

^Hahaha! Doubt my Dr. will allow that now.

 

[GreyWolf]

@Mike McCall Fine we'll keep you on the fester diet lot's of jolts and edible light bulbs xD (No joke there a diy on youtube) but in all seriousness your right your Dr. would assassinate you but if the doctor says your allowed one cup don't be a smart a** like me who arrived with this thing at the doctors office.

She wasn't amused

 

[Mike McCall]

Used to drink coffee from something similar. Also would drink double espresso's straight. Finally tore my stomach up and I had to quit. Dr. would probably shoot me, which might preferable to what my wife would do. This heart thing has her a bit riled.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Encourage you don't stick the Unifi controller on some end user PC....
Get a CK, or if you do enough Unifi hardware with other clients...spin up your own *nix cloud controller to provision client devices to.

 

[Mike McCall]

Encourage you don't stick the Unifi controller on some end user PC....
Get a CK, or if you do enough Unifi hardware with other clients...spin up your own *nix cloud controller to provision client devices to.

Won't happen in this case. Client had been using a Verizon Jetpack for access previously. They've now gone with a WISP provider. They were barely convinced to go with a USG & AP rather than a router from Worst Buy. The USG only has a couple of usable ports & no POE. One is used for the AP, and the other is earmarked for a NAS. I may try to find a way to auto start the controller as it quits when the user logs out. I'll try to setup a task, or maybe find someone to write a startup script. Not ideal, but it's where things are at.

One of the owners had me look at their slow running laptop that's 2-years old. They were still running the trial version of McAfee which expired 30-days after he bought it. These are NOT technical people.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Man that's just all the more reason..old computer, what if it crashes?
Situation like this..."odd ball, one-off" clients...is where we provision the Unifi devices to go to our cloud controller. We have near 100 clients on Cloud Keys and probably around 75 or so on our cloud controller. In some cases...an on-prem Unifi controller just isn't needed.

 

[Mike McCall]

Man that's just all the more reason..old computer, what if it crashes?
Situation like this..."odd ball, one-off" clients...is where we provision the Unifi devices to go to our cloud controller. We have near 100 clients on Cloud Keys and probably around 75 or so on our cloud controller. In some cases...an on-prem Unifi controller just isn't needed.

I don't disagree that is preferred. The owner was not running everything on his laptop, and the controller is certainly not there either. The story about the laptop was intended only as an illustration of their technical prowess. In fact, I just upgraded them to a new Dell Optiplex 5060 with a second one on the way. We also talked about getting an actual ISP rather than their Verizon Jetpack. So far, it seems they made a good choice in a local WISP provider. So, not an old computer to run it on, but not ideal either I agree.

I did find this:

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/205144550-UniFi-Run-the-Controller-as-a-Windows-Service

It may be just what I'm looking for in this case. If this just becomes too unwieldy I may get a CK for them.

 

[nerd2u]

A 5 port gigabit dumb switch is what like 10$?

Will add more ports

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[Mike McCall]

A 5 port gigabit dumb switch is what like 10$?

Will add more ports

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

True, but still no POE. It does have a 5V USB-C power port. I guess I didn't understand a CK is required at an additional $100, and I still have to go buy my own charger as Ubiquity doesn't seem to sell one. Great, I can either tell the client I forgot they need another device for an additional $110 (cuz I have to source my own USB-C 5V charger), or I can just buy it myself and not bill them. Perfect.

 

[Mike McCall]

Well that was grouchy. I've ordered the CK, dumb switch, & power supply. Rather than bill them for it and have to explain I'll retain ownership and loan it to them. I feel like crap and am trying to still work. Sorry.