This article provides the steps to install and update the self-hosted UniFi Network Server to the current stable release on a Debian or Ubuntu system via APT (Advanced Package Tool). If you run into issues following the process described in this article, please take a look at the scripts provided here to install and update the UniFi Network Application.
Requirements
In order to update the UniFi Network Server via APT, it is necessary to create source files or edit lines in an existing sources.list file with Linux text editors: vi or nano. The repo structure should be permanent, but if there are any changes, they will be pointed out in the UniFi Network software version release posts, found in the Release section of the Community.
Before upgrading the UniFi Network Server, make sure that you have backed up the UniFi Network Database. You will need to make sure that the user has sudo permissions. For more information about adding a user to sudo list, see this Debian article.
UniFi Network APT Steps
See an example of what scripts the UI Community is using to install and update the UniFi Network Server on any Ubuntu or Debian-based system in this Community post.
- Install required packages before you begin with the following command:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ca-certificates apt-transport-https
- Use the following command to add a new source list:
echo 'deb [ arch=amd64 ] https://www.ui.com/downloads/unifi/debian stable ubiquiti' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/100-ubnt-unifi.list
- Add the GPG Keys.
- Method A – Recommended
- Install the following trusted key into
/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.dsudo wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/unifi-repo.gpg https://dl.ui.com/unifi/unifi-repo.gpg
- Install the following trusted key into
- Method B
- Using apt-key:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv 06E85760C0A52C50
- Using apt-key:
- Method A – Recommended
- For a new UniFi Network Server, install MongoDB. For Ubuntu 22.04, run the commands below. If you’re updating the UniFi Network Server to version 7.5, ignore these commands and instead refer to MongoDB’s help article to update your database to the required MongoDB version 3.6.
wget -qO - https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-3.6.asc | sudo apt-key add - echo "deb https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu bionic/mongodb-org/3.6 multiverse" | sudo tee /etc/apt/ sources.list.d/mongodb-org-3.6.list sudo apt-get update
This step may not be required, depending on the Linux distro you have. If your distro does not come with MongoDB, and it’s not available in their repo, then please see the MongoDB installation guide (Ubuntu | Debian).
- Install and upgrade the UniFi Network application with the following command:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unifi -y
- The UniFi Network application should now be accessible at the computer’s configured local or public IP address, by typing that IP address in a browser’s navigation bar (Chrome is recommended). If it is not launching, use the following command:
sudo service unifi start
When using the commands above, it is assumed you have sudo and wget installed. More information about sudo can be found here, and wget here.
Other Helpful Commands
- To stop the UniFi service:
sudo service unifi stop - To restart the UniFi service:
sudo service unifi restart - To see the status of UniFi service:
sudo service unifi status
Log Files Location
Log files are essential for any troubleshooting. Find them here:
- /usr/lib/unifi/logs/server.log
- /usr/lib/unifi/logs/mongod.log
If your application is running on a Unix/Linux based system, then you will require superuser (sudo) privileges to access these log files.
Notes and Tips
- This Community post shares some scripts to install and update the UniFi Network Application for any recent Ubuntu or Debian version.
- If you are installing in a VM or a headless server, you may encounter entropy issues. This could be anything from slow service start/restart to complete service failure. The fix is to install
haveged. This is an external link for a tutorial on the subject. - Since UniFi Network version 5.6.x the UniFi service does not run as root. This means that you cannot bind to privileged ports (<1024). The application will fail to start if you try to use these ports.
- The following affects APT versions 1.5 onward (Ubuntu 17.10 and Debian Sid or newer). A recent version of the apt-secure man page stated: „Since version 1.5 changes in the information contained in the Release file about the repository need to be confirmed before APT continues to apply updates from this repository“, meaning that when performing an update from a major version to the next (for example 5.5.x to 5.6.x) the
apt-get updatewill result in an error.- To fix this run the command the following way:
apt-get update --allow-releaseinfo-change - If you receive an error stating the command is not understood in combination with the other options, users have reported that issuing the following two commands has fixed it: issue
apt cleanand hit enter, followed byapt-get updateand enter.
- To fix this run the command the following way:
- The UniFi Network application, when installed on Debian and Ubuntu, will not have a GUI since it’s being run as a Service. Please use the service command for starting, stopping and restarting the UniFi Network application.
- If you see the following error on your DNS server, a user reports solving this by forcing the system to use 8.8.8.8 as DNS server, not his ISP.
- At the moment Ubiquiti does not support arm64, hence it is not available via the repo. A download and manual installation will be necessary for this.
- In the Add the GPG Keys, method B: Source: External Link. For users behind restrictive firewalls the following command will allow them to import the GPG key:
apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv 06E85760C0A52C50 - Because of the Java 8 dependency, when using UniFi Network 5.7.X some additional steps might be needed. See this Community post for details.
- The command
apt-getisaptin Ubuntu older than 16.04.
