Today I decided to install a test server to try out a feature on the new version of the unifi controller.
I currently have unifi controller version 5.4.16 running on a Digital Ocean VPS server for my wifi network.
I want updated and try the new Facebook Wifi feature. Last time I installe the controller on the ubuntu server I did not write down or documented how I did it, so this time I am documenting every step.
I headed over to vultr.com to get a new server
I chose ubuntu 16.04 and selected a datacenter close to me. I am in Orlando Florida so I chose a Miami Florida server.
Headed over to UBNT.COM
I followed instructions from this forum post to install a one shot script that will install everything for me.
1. Updated uburntu by connecting to the server with putty terminal with root and password provided by the vultr website. Once logged in I used "sudo apt-get update" then "sudo apt-get upgrade" this command took a little longer.
2. ran this before anything else : apt-get install default-jre-headless
3. Copied the le-install.sh file to /root using cyberduck (my ftp client) and renamed it to make it easy for me to "install.sh"
4. Ran the following command "sudo bash install.sh" and it asked me form my domain name I used unifi.fqdn(replace this with my domain.com).com which I had already added an A record in clouldflare dns settings. my email and then it verified and I said yes. Afterwards it started installing the unifi controller with the let's encrypt ssl cert. (in the process of installing ip table rules came up asking to hit ipv4 and ipv6 rules to save I hit "yes")
1. Updated uburntu by connecting to the server with putty terminal with root and password provided by the vultr website. Once logged in I used "sudo apt-get update" then "sudo apt-get upgrade" this command took a little longer.
2. ran this before anything else : apt-get install default-jre-headless
3. Copied the le-install.sh file to /root using cyberduck (my ftp client) and renamed it to make it easy for me to "install.sh"
4. Ran the following command "sudo bash install.sh" and it asked me form my domain name I used unifi.fqdn(replace this with my domain.com).com which I had already added an A record in clouldflare dns settings. my email and then it verified and I said yes. Afterwards it started installing the unifi controller with the let's encrypt ssl cert. (in the process of installing ip table rules came up asking to hit ipv4 and ipv6 rules to save I hit "yes")
Not happy with my unifi cloud controller test implementation.
After tinkering with the default software that comes with the unifi cloud controller on an ubuntu server and the Unifi AC Mesh access point I decided I was going to try another way of acomplishing what I wanted originally which was to create a Social Wifi Hotspot to sell and manage for local restaurants, car dealers, barbershops or anybody that needed to offer free wifi to customers.
I decided to go with the tanaza software which has custom firmware for most ubiquiti unifi equipment.
They're offering is simple and seems easy to manage. I tried upgrading the firmware on my unifi mesh ac and it failed . I Followed their procedure to install the firmware on unifi ac mesh in this url
right at the end where you connect with the terminal to unpack and run the .sh command it fails with error "untested unifi's fw version: BZ.v3.9.27" basically saying that the firmware is not allowed.
The fix was to downgrade to older by using the command: "upgrade http://dl.ubnt.com/unifi/firmware/U7PG2/3.8.3.6587/BZ.qca956x.v3.8.3.6587.170609.0803.bin" which will downgrade the ap to 3.8.3...after that you can continue following the procedure outlined in tanaza's guide.
They might want to update the instructions to reflect the new firmware upgrade from ubiquiti.