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linuxserver/unifi-network-application

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The Unifi-network-application software is a powerful, enterprise wireless software engine ideal for high-density client deployments requiring low latency and high uptime performance.

unifi-network-application

Supported Architectures

We utilise the docker manifest for multi-platform awareness. More information is available from docker here and our announcement here.

Simply pulling lscr.io/linuxserver/unifi-network-application:latest should retrieve the correct image for your arch, but you can also pull specific arch images via tags.

The architectures supported by this image are:

Architecture Available Tag
x86-64 amd64-<version tag>
arm64 arm64v8-<version tag>
armhf

Application Setup

After setup, the web UI is available at https://ip:8443. The application can be configured, or a backup restored, using the first run wizard.

This container requires an external mongodb database instance.

Setting Up Your External Database

Starting with version 8.1 of Unifi Network Application, mongodb 3.6 through 7.0 are supported.

Make sure you pin your database image version and do not use latest, as mongodb does not support automatic upgrades between major versions.

MongoDB >4.4 on X86_64 Hardware needs a CPU with AVX support. Some lower end Intel CPU models like Celeron and Pentium (before Tiger-Lake) more Details: Advanced Vector Extensions - Wikipedia don't support AVX, but you can still use MongoDB 4.4.

If you are using the official mongodb container in Version >=6, you can create your user using an init-mongo.js file with the following contents:

db.getSiblingDB("MONGO_DBNAME").createUser({user: "MONGO_USER", pwd: "MONGO_PASS", roles: [{role: "dbOwner", db: "MONGO_DBNAME"}]});
db.getSiblingDB("MONGO_DBNAME_stat").createUser({user: "MONGO_USER", pwd: "MONGO_PASS", roles: [{role: "dbOwner", db: "MONGO_DBNAME_stat"}]});

If you are using mongodb < 6.0, you can create a init-mongo.sh file with the following contents:

#!/bin/bash

mongo <<EOF
use admin
db.auth("${MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME}", "${MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD}")
use ${MONGO_DBNAME}
db.createUser({
  user: "${MONGO_USER}",
  pwd: "${MONGO_PASS}",
  roles: [
    { db: "${MONGO_DBNAME}", role: "dbOwner" },
    { db: "${MONGO_DBNAME}_stat", role: "dbOwner" }
  ]
})
EOF

If you are using the Mongo v4 (the latest which does not require AVX):

db.getSiblingDB("MONGO_DBNAME").createUser({user: "MONGO_USER", pwd: "MONGO_PASS", roles: [{role: "dbOwner", db: "MONGO_DBNAME"}, {role: "dbOwner", db: "MONGO_DBNAME_stat"}]});

Being sure to replace the placeholders with the same values you supplied to the Unifi container, and mount it into your mongodb container.

For example: MongoDB >= 6.0:

  unifi-db:
    image: docker.io/mongo:<version tag>
    container_name: unifi-db
    volumes:
      - /path/to/data:/data/db
      - /path/to/init-mongo.js:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/init-mongo.js:ro
    restart: unless-stopped
MongoDB < 6.0:
  unifi-db:
    image: docker.io/mongo:<version tag>
    container_name: unifi-db
    volumes:
      - /path/to/data:/data/db
      - /path/to/init-mongo.sh:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/init-mongo.sh:ro
    restart: unless-stopped

Note that the init script method will only work on first run. If you start the Mongodb container without an init script it will generate test data automatically and you will have to manually create your databases, or restart with a clean /data/db volume and an init script mounted.

If you are using the init JS method do not also set MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME, MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD, or any other "INITDB" values as they will cause conflicts. Setting these variables for the .sh file is necessary

You can also run the commands directly against the database using either mongo (< 6.0) or mongosh (>= 6.0).

Device Adoption

For Unifi to adopt other devices, e.g. an Access Point, it is required to change the inform IP address. Because Unifi runs inside Docker by default it uses an IP address not accessible by other devices. To change this go to Settings > System > Advanced and set the Inform Host to a hostname or IP address accessible by your devices. Additionally the checkbox "Override" has to be checked, so that devices can connect to the controller during adoption (devices use the inform-endpoint during adoption).

Note that you must use 8080:8080. If you MUST change the port, it must be changed on both sides and manually changed in your system.properties file. Otherwise, devices will initially communicate and then break after.

Please note, Unifi change the location of this option every few releases so if it's not where it says, search for "Inform" or "Inform Host" in the settings.

In order to manually adopt a device take these steps:

ssh ubnt@$AP-IP
set-inform http://$address:8080/inform

The default device password is ubnt. $address is the IP address of the host you are running this container on and $AP-IP is the Access Point IP address.

When using a Security Gateway (router) it could be that network connected devices are unable to obtain an ip address. This can be fixed by setting "DHCP Gateway IP", under Settings > Networks > network_name, to a correct (and accessible) ip address.

Migration From Unifi-Controller

If you were using the mongoless tag for the Unifi Controller container, you can switch directly to the Unifi Network Application container without needing to perform any migration steps.

You cannot perform an in-place upgrade from an existing Unifi-Controller container, you must run a backup and then a restore.

The simplest migration approach is to take a full backup of your existing install, including history, from the Unifi-Controller web UI, then shut down the old container.

You can then start up the new container with a clean /config mount (and a database container configured), and perform a restore using the setup wizard.

Strict reverse proxies

This image uses a self-signed certificate by default. This naturally means the scheme is https. If you are using a reverse proxy which validates certificates, you need to disable this check for the container.

Usage

To help you get started creating a container from this image you can either use docker-compose or the docker cli.

---
services:
  unifi-network-application:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/unifi-network-application:latest
    container_name: unifi-network-application
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
      - MONGO_USER=unifi
      - MONGO_PASS=
      - MONGO_HOST=unifi-db
      - MONGO_PORT=27017
      - MONGO_DBNAME=unifi
      - MEM_LIMIT=1024 #optional
      - MEM_STARTUP=1024 #optional
      - MONGO_TLS= #optional
      - MONGO_AUTHSOURCE= #optional
    volumes:
      - /path/to/unifi-network-application/data:/config
    ports:
      - 8443:8443
      - 3478:3478/udp
      - 10001:10001/udp
      - 8080:8080
      - 1900:1900/udp #optional
      - 8843:8843 #optional
      - 8880:8880 #optional
      - 6789:6789 #optional
      - 5514:5514/udp #optional
    restart: unless-stopped

docker cli (click here for more info)

docker run -d \
  --name=unifi-network-application \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=Etc/UTC \
  -e MONGO_USER=unifi \
  -e MONGO_PASS= \
  -e MONGO_HOST=unifi-db \
  -e MONGO_PORT=27017 \
  -e MONGO_DBNAME=unifi \
  -e MEM_LIMIT=1024 `#optional` \
  -e MEM_STARTUP=1024 `#optional` \
  -e MONGO_TLS= `#optional` \
  -e MONGO_AUTHSOURCE= `#optional` \
  -p 8443:8443 \
  -p 3478:3478/udp \
  -p 10001:10001/udp \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -p 1900:1900/udp `#optional` \
  -p 8843:8843 `#optional` \
  -p 8880:8880 `#optional` \
  -p 6789:6789 `#optional` \
  -p 5514:5514/udp `#optional` \
  -v /path/to/unifi-network-application/data:/config \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  lscr.io/linuxserver/unifi-network-application:latest

Parameters

Containers are configured using parameters passed at runtime (such as those above). These parameters are separated by a colon and indicate <external>:<internal> respectively. For example, -p 8080:80 would expose port 80 from inside the container to be accessible from the host's IP on port 8080 outside the container.

Ports (-p)

Parameter Function
8443 Unifi web admin port
3478/udp Unifi STUN port
10001/udp Required for AP discovery
8080 Required for device communication
1900/udp Required for Make controller discoverable on L2 network option
8843 Unifi guest portal HTTPS redirect port
8880 Unifi guest portal HTTP redirect port
6789 For mobile throughput test
5514/udp Remote syslog port

Environment Variables (-e)

Env Function
PUID=1000 for UserID - see below for explanation
PGID=1000 for GroupID - see below for explanation
TZ=Etc/UTC specify a timezone to use, see this list.
MONGO_USER=unifi Mongodb Username. Only evaluated on first run. Special characters must be url encoded.
MONGO_PASS= Mongodb Password. Only evaluated on first run. Special characters must be url encoded.
MONGO_HOST=unifi-db Mongodb Hostname. Only evaluated on first run.
MONGO_PORT=27017 Mongodb Port. Only evaluated on first run.
MONGO_DBNAME=unifi Mongodb Database Name (stats DB is automatically suffixed with _stat). Only evaluated on first run.
MEM_LIMIT=1024 Optionally change the Java memory limit (in Megabytes). Set to default to reset to default
MEM_STARTUP=1024 Optionally change the Java initial/minimum memory (in Megabytes). Set to default to reset to default
MONGO_TLS= Mongodb enable TLS. Only evaluated on first run.
MONGO_AUTHSOURCE= Mongodb authSource. For Atlas set to admin.Defaults to MONGO_DBNAME.Only evaluated on first run.

Volume Mappings (-v)

Volume Function
/config Persistent config files

Miscellaneous Options

Parameter Function

Environment variables from files (Docker secrets)

You can set any environment variable from a file by using a special prepend FILE__.

As an example:

-e FILE__MYVAR=/run/secrets/mysecretvariable

Will set the environment variable MYVAR based on the contents of the /run/secrets/mysecretvariable file.

Umask for running applications

For all of our images we provide the ability to override the default umask settings for services started within the containers using the optional -e UMASK=022 setting. Keep in mind umask is not chmod it subtracts from permissions based on it's value it does not add. Please read up here before asking for support.

User / Group Identifiers

When using volumes (-v flags), permissions issues can arise between the host OS and the container, we avoid this issue by allowing you to specify the user PUID and group PGID.

Ensure any volume directories on the host are owned by the same user you specify and any permissions issues will vanish like magic.

In this instance PUID=1000 and PGID=1000, to find yours use id your_user as below:

id your_user

Example output:

uid=1000(your_user) gid=1000(your_user) groups=1000(your_user)

Docker Mods

Docker Mods Docker Universal Mods

We publish various Docker Mods to enable additional functionality within the containers. The list of Mods available for this image (if any) as well as universal mods that can be applied to any one of our images can be accessed via the dynamic badges above.

Support Info

  • Shell access whilst the container is running:

    docker exec -it unifi-network-application /bin/bash
    
  • To monitor the logs of the container in realtime:

    docker logs -f unifi-network-application
    
  • Container version number:

    docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' unifi-network-application
    
  • Image version number:

    docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' lscr.io/linuxserver/unifi-network-application:latest
    

Updating Info

Most of our images are static, versioned, and require an image update and container recreation to update the app inside. With some exceptions (noted in the relevant readme.md), we do not recommend or support updating apps inside the container. Please consult the Application Setup section above to see if it is recommended for the image.

Below are the instructions for updating containers:

Via Docker Compose

  • Update images:

    • All images:

      docker-compose pull
      
    • Single image:

      docker-compose pull unifi-network-application
      
  • Update containers:

    • All containers:

      docker-compose up -d
      
    • Single container:

      docker-compose up -d unifi-network-application
      
  • You can also remove the old dangling images:

    docker image prune
    

Via Docker Run

  • Update the image:

    docker pull lscr.io/linuxserver/unifi-network-application:latest
    
  • Stop the running container:

    docker stop unifi-network-application
    
  • Delete the container:

    docker rm unifi-network-application
    
  • Recreate a new container with the same docker run parameters as instructed above (if mapped correctly to a host folder, your /config folder and settings will be preserved)

  • You can also remove the old dangling images:

    docker image prune
    

Image Update Notifications - Diun (Docker Image Update Notifier)

Tip

We recommend Diun for update notifications. Other tools that automatically update containers unattended are not recommended or supported.

Building locally

If you want to make local modifications to these images for development purposes or just to customize the logic:

git clone https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-unifi-network-application.git
cd docker-unifi-network-application
docker build \
  --no-cache \
  --pull \
  -t lscr.io/linuxserver/unifi-network-application:latest .

The ARM variants can be built on x86_64 hardware using multiarch/qemu-user-static

docker run --rm --privileged multiarch/qemu-user-static:register --reset

Once registered you can define the dockerfile to use with -f Dockerfile.aarch64.

Versions

  • 04.03.24: - Install from zip package instead of deb.
  • 17.10.23: - Add environment variables for TLS and authSource to support Atlas and new MongoDB versions.
  • 05.09.23: - Initial release.