Enterprise Ubiquiti Unifi
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Has anybody here done "enterprise" Ubiquiti? We're accelerating our timeline to replace our Mikrotik router and a couple of switches with Unifi hardware, and thinking about setting up the Unifi Security Gateway as a drop in replacement is giving me heartburn.
What's a good strategy for setting it up as a drop in replacement, with minimal downtime? (I'm sure I'll be running around like a headless chicken fixing people's special snowflake network printers, etc).
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I know several people with Unifi arrays in their houses and I can tell you conclusively that if you have any IOT shit (i.e. not quite standards compliant) it's gonna be a twitchy bastard. One place needed 7 SSIDs with mutually incompatible settings to make all the consumer tat work.
And I know of NOBODY who has ever gotten a wireless printer to work on it.
Enterprise wise, though, it seems to be prettymuch seamless. Dunno anyone who uses the security widget though.
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I've just recently replaced my Cisco 2821 router and 2970 switch with a Ubiquiti ER-8 EdgeRouter and EdgeSwitch Lite-24 (actually 2)...but not the Unifi stuff...conversions were pretty easy. I did get a Unifi AP AC PRO WAP to replace the shitty Linksys/Cisco N WAP I had and it's awesome...can't say I like the controller software you have to run in order to admin it though....The cloud key solves that though...not sure if I'm going to get one just yet. The other hardware like the security gateway sounds interesting though. I had had no issues with my 2 networked printers and I have an old HP 4100N and a Canon printers/scanner thing. Look forward to hearing your feedback and experiences with it.
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Yeah, we have like 3 Unifi access points already, and I use ER-X's at our branch office and at home. Definitely like them all.
If I was setting up an ER-X I wouldn't be worried. I'd just set up the network topology and leases and all that other stuff, and then rewire the network to bypass the Mikrotik router.
But the USG uses the same Unifi controller software that the access points use. Which I like, BUT it means that the router has to be on the network to configure it.
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@captain We have 5 APs, with one in wireless mesh mode. The software is running as a service on the going-to-be-the-new-dc-as-soon-as-we-have-time-to-drop-everything-off-the-old-one-and-join-the-new-one server.
In contrast to the engenious ones we used to have, which frequently locked up despite rebooting automatically every 12 hours, these are stable to the point of rebooting only when there's an update or a power outage.
We're not using any of their switches or gateways, though. The main vlan just uses the dc. The "public" vlan goes through an old netgear with tomato on it.
And I have no problem getting wireless printers on it either.
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OK. I think I have a game plan.
First, there are a "few" configuration things I can do on the Unifi controller before changeover day. Not enough for me to be happy about it (I really would have liked to set up port forwards and DHCP leases before then).
Second, I can set up the Linux machine the Unifi controller is on to have a static IP.
Third, I already set up the Mikrotik to have like one hour long leases.
Fourth, I'm compiling a spreadsheet of all the important DHCP leases on the network, host names, IPs, etc. I'll make notes of whether a resource is "portable" or not (i.e., does it NEED to have the same IP minimize reconfiguration, like network printers on IP-based Windows ports).
Fifth, I need to print that list.
On changeover day, I swap the routers. This sets up a blank DHCP on the network, but I set up the static IP for the controller, so I can connect to it without futzing around. HOPEFULLY, I can adopt the router and do all the DHCP leases and port forwards and routes in a few hours.
If I can't, I can just switch back to the Mikrotik and be
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@captain said in Enterprise Ubiquiti Unifi:
configuration things I can do on the Unifi controller before changeover day. Not enough for me to be happy about it (I really would have liked to set up port forwards and DHCP leases before then).
Second, I can set up the Linux machine the Unifi controller is on to have a static IP.
Third, I already set up the Mikrotik to have like one hour long leases.
Fourth, I'm compiling a spreadsheet of all the important DHCP leases on the network, host names, IPs, etc. I'll make notes of whether a resource is "portable" or not (i.e., does it NEED to have the same IP minimize reconfiguration, like network printers on IP-based Windows ports).
Fifth, I need to print that list.
On changeover day, I swap the routers. This sets up a blank DHCP on the network, but I set up the static IP for the controller, so I can connect to it without futzing around. HOPEFULLY, I can adopt the router and do all the DHCP leases and port forwards and routes in a few hours.
If I can't, I can just switch back to the Mikrotik and beI finished this project this weekend. I found out a few cool tricks, if anybody is in the same position I was.
The most important was, probably, that I could plug the router's LAN port into the LAN and adopt it in the controller even if it's not ready to be deployed. I ended up with dual/conflicting DHCP for a few days this week, but it wasn't a big deal. (The only user-facing problem happened when a user's PC got assigned an IP address outside of the old router's networks) If I looked hard, I could probably find a way to shut off DHCP on the Ubiquiti router.
I did end up having to factory reset the router, but the controller remembered all of the port forwards and DHCP leases. Oh, and you make new DHCP leases for clients that haven't been seen by clicking on "New Client" in the Clients screen.
Also, the adoption/factory reset process was a bit time consuming to figure out. The hardest part was that the modem was expecting the router to have a static IP address, but I had to do a bunch of digging/swapping on install day to figure out how to get them to talk.
Pretty happy so far. Only one printer didn't get its lease made 'static'.
