Menu


Blog

Migrating to a Unifi cloud key
Aug 8, 2017
I recently started switching my network gear to Ubiquiti and as part of that I needed to run their Unifi software. I started by running it on my raspberry pi, and recently migrated to their cloud key solution.
I started out by setting up the Unifi software on the PI using their apt repositories and everything worked. Then one update broke the web interface. On a resource constrained Raspberry Pi it ran out of memory during startup. My network gear still worked but I could no longer manage it. I followed a few forum posts suggesting moving to java 8 would help. It did not for me. Others suggested that moving to Oracle's java 8 was the solution. It came at rather hefty dependency price. So I opted for buying a cloud key and try to use that instead.

Forum posts suggested the migration would be easy, but they all assumed the old software was running fine. I did not have that luxury. I had set up my original Unifi to do backups, so I took one of those backups. I then shut down the Unifi service running on the Pi. I had to forcefully kill the java process but die it did. I then booted the cloud key. I had assigned it a fixed IP on my DHCP server so it came up at a known location. From there it was a matter of clicking the 'manage' link and upload the backup file. It took a few moments and then we were back in business. The UI was working, the other network gear showed up and it all seems to work really well. It is not often it is this easy. I had set aside a few hours for this work, and it took all up less than half an hour. I am very pleased with Ubiquiti and I am sure to continue to replace my network gear with their stuff as the need arises.

Category: Software