Installing UniFi Network Controller In Docker On A Synology NAS

[@GGMKshow]

Very very easy and straight forward guide! Thanks!

[@MrTimTech2022]

Great stuff GGMK, glad you found it real easy to follow, appreciate your feedback.

[@SeanKelly01]

Really great guide. Extremely clear and easy to follow. I had done this before but broke my installation when I tried to update it. Fortunately I had a settings backup, used your guide as was back up and running in a few minutes!

[@MrTimTech2022]

Excellent Sean, glad it was easy to follow and that you were able to restore the backup to get it up and running again, just goes to show backups are extremely important as you never know when they might be needed. Thanks again!

[@OmarDaily]

Just used your tutorial to host the UniFi controller on my Synology NAS and adopt a UXG-Pro to it. Worked like a charm!. I followed another tutorial earlier and it was nothing but problems.. Looks like some settings were different, between the 2 videos. Thanks!.

[@MrTimTech2022]

Well thanks very much Omar, glad the video worked for you and you've found it helpful.

[@ClaytOnline]

Muito obrigado pela ajuda. Consegui fazer aqui exatamente como mostrado. THANK YOU ❤

[@MrTimTech2022]

You're very welcome @ClaytOnline, glad it helped you 🙂

[@EasyLanguageCoach]

Excellent tutorial. Got me up and running in no time. Thanks a lot!

[@MrTimTech2022]

Thanks Steve, glad it worked for you and was easy to follow.

[@qwerty80801]

And, interestingly, at around 7m30s where you chose folder /docker then added /unifi in the box. That produced folders data, logs & run under just /docker. I set my folder to /docker/unifi and then also /unifi typed into the box. That put data, logs and run under /docker/unifi as hoped.

[@MrTimTech2022]

Hey Brian - Thanks for your comments, much appreciated. Yes I did notice that sometime after recording the video. It didn't matter much to me for testing to be honest but if you have multiple VM's then like you did it's probably best to put in /docker/unifi and then unifi like you did - to keep folder structures tidy 🙂

[@qwerty80801]

Nicely done! Your instructions worked perfectly, system came right up - adopted my first Ubiquity AP and am configuring things up! Other instructions I tried that happened to appear first in search: none of them worked properly (couldn't adopt Access points). Looks like they all used older or deprecated images. You saved the day!

[@MrTimTech2022]

Hey again, cool glad my video worked. I did notice it was using a recent UniFi Controller image which was one reason for me doing the video as like you say some others were old, although I haven't tested adopting devices as I have a UDM-Pro setup. Glad though that you've been able to adopt devices successfully, nice to know it worked. You're very welcome, glad I've been able to help.

[@SigJohno]

Amazing work. Will the unifi manager pull updates directly from unifi for future releases or does it depend on the versions that jacobalberty/unifi releases?

[@MrTimTech2022]

Thanks @SigJohno. In fact I was just researching this yesterday and it appears that they say you have to create a new VM with the latest UniFi Controller version and then restore a backup in to that from the prior UniFi version. Seems a bit of a chore but I guess if you're unable to invest in a UDM or UDM SE to host UniFi then I guess it's not too much trouble once in a while if you probably just skip some version releases and just update it to major ones. Although I haven't tried updating it within the VM directly from UniFi. Something I need to get around to doing I think. Maybe you want to try it.

[@SigJohno]

@@MrTimTech2022 I’ll probably not deploy this then tbh, we were hoping to embed this in a commercial product we have where occasionally we have to supply a data switch or two for our equipment, and adding a cloud key was just another piece of kit to maintain - this looked promising as we use docker already. Creating a separate VM would be irritating. But since the UniFi docker container can’t directly update, we’ll probably swerve this. Good guide anyway!

[@MrTimTech2022]

Hey @@SigJohno Thanks for the follow up comment. I'm sure I read somewhere it didn't update but I can't find it now :-( I wonder if you load on a version before the current and just see if updates can be done to the controller, without actually setting up the network devices etc. I might well give it a go myself. Will let you know when and how I get on if I can find time over the next few days. To be honest it does seem odd that it can't be updated. Thanks for the appreciation, keeps me going on YT 🙂👍

[@DuckDuckDad]

@@MrTimTech2022I’ve been running it in docker on synology for years. I can confirm that it does not auto update, despite selecting auto update in the Unifi controller settings. You do have to create a new container with the updated image and restore it from a backup when first logging into the new installation. It’s also important to shut down the running version before running the new container, or you’ll run into problems with your APs trying to connect to both instances.

[@DuckDuckDad]

@@SigJohnoWhile having to manually update is less than ideal, especially outside of a home environment, it is a simple process. I used to run the controller in an Ubuntu vm, but I find updating this way still easier than keeping the vm up to date. I refuse to purchase more hardware just to control my APs.