Unable to adopt Unifi AP on new install of controller software

R

Red Squirrel

[H]F Junkie
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I used to have a Windows VM for the controller software which was kinda a pain and during network changes I just got rid of it with intention of looking into what it would take to run it in Linux. So today I did just that and found a tutorial and download link for a Linux version of the software. I got it working and can login to it and everything. It's version 3.2.10.

I have a single AP, with potential plans to add another as I have 2 spares. They are version 1.2.3.360 which I'm guessing is probably too old. When I try to adopt the AP, it just eventually goes to "Disconnected". At one point it was also going to "failed". I went on it and did "syswrapper.sh restore-default".

How do I go about making this work again? I'm guessing I probably have to manually update the firmware? Also just to confirm, from the AP I can telnet into port 8443 and 8080 of the controller, so I know the tcp connectivity is ok. I can also telnet to port 22 of the AP from the controller host.

Some interesting stuff going on in the logs (on the AP itself). I tried to force the inform url to change, but it's like if it's resolving it wrong.

Code: 
BZ.v1.2.3# syswrapper.sh set-adopt https://rohan.loc:8443/inform/
Changing inform url to 'https://rohan.loc:8443/inform/'...
done.
BZ.v1.2.3# tail -f /var/log/messages 
Nov 29 10:58:07 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_ok(): [Inform OK] next in 10s
Nov 29 10:58:17 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_ok(): [Inform OK] next in 10s
Nov 29 10:58:27 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_ok(): [Inform OK] next in 10s
Nov 29 10:58:37 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_ok(): [Inform OK] next in 10s
Nov 29 10:58:47 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_ok(): [Inform OK] next in 10s
Nov 29 10:58:57 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_ok(): [Inform OK] next in 10s
Nov 29 10:59:20 wapbasement01nloc user.err syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_fail(): server unreachable
Nov 29 10:59:20 wapbasement01nloc user.err syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_fail(): inform failed #1 (last inform: 23 seconds ago), rc=3
Nov 29 10:59:40 wapbasement01nloc user.err syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_fail(): server unreachable
Nov 29 10:59:40 wapbasement01nloc user.err syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_fail(): inform failed #2 (last inform: 43 seconds ago), rc=3
Nov 29 11:00:13 wapbasement01nloc user.err syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_fail(): server unreachable
Nov 29 11:00:13 wapbasement01nloc user.err syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_fail(): inform failed #3 (last inform: 76 seconds ago), rc=3
Nov 29 11:00:13 wapbasement01nloc user.err syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_fail(): [STATE] entering SELFRUN!!!!
Nov 29 11:00:33 wapbasement01nloc user.err syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_fail(): server unreachable
Nov 29 11:00:33 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_next_inform_url(): next inform url[1]=http://unifi:8080/inform
Nov 29 11:00:38 wapbasement01nloc user.err syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_inform(): Failed resolving URL 'http://unifi:8080/inform'
Nov 29 11:00:38 wapbasement01nloc user.err syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_fail(): server unreachable
Nov 29 11:00:38 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_next_inform_url(): next inform url[0]=http://10.1.1.14:8080/inform
Nov 29 11:00:43 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_set_managed(): [STATE] enter MANAGED
Nov 29 11:00:44 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_ok(): [Inform OK] next in 10s
Nov 29 11:00:53 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_ok(): [Inform OK] next in 10s
Nov 29 11:01:03 wapbasement01nloc user.info syslog: ace_reporter.reporter_ok(): [Inform OK] next in 10s

rohan.loc is 10.1.1.5 but at one point it's trying to go to http://unifi:8080/inform but then it tries to go to http://10.1.1.14:8080/infom. I can't recall what .14 is but think that's the old server. I did a cleanup in my DNS a while back so the reverse for it no longer works, otherwise I could know for sure.

I also tried setting to port 8080, as I think that's actually the proper port for the inform protocol. This is going beyond what any documentation really talks about so kind of grasping at straws.

Oh and to clarify the hostname resolves OK on ap. I just got home from night shift expecting my WiFi to be down but its still working so I think the restore command did not fully restore to factory. I'll play with it more after sleep but open to suggestions.
 
Last edited:
What about adding the 10.1.1.14 ip to your server to, just to see if it works?.

Did the same thing as you are trying but never got it to work, ended up just, restiing the UAP and starting from scratch (simple setup, initial controller was a VM windows and changed to a linux to.
 
Grentz said:
Update your AP manually. That is ridiculously old.

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/204910064-UniFi-Upgrading-firmware-image-via-SSH

Also why was windows a pain for the controller? Works fine and is nice and lightweight on the server.
Click to expand...

My environment is mostly Linux so I like to keep stuff consistent. The Windows VM was actually for a game server which has been moved to another vlan, so I did not want to make a windows machine just for Unifi, and definitly don't want the management server on the other vlan.

And windows is far from lightweight. LOL. Well, XP/2003 is not that bad, but still, Linux is better.

I don't want to change the IP of this server as it serves other purposes, such as DNS, but I'll try the manual AP upgrade and see how that goes. I was a bit reluctant to do that in case I brick it.
 
I think you need to get to 2.0. How the hell are you on such an old ass build??
 
Red Squirrel said:
My environment is mostly Linux so I like to keep stuff consistent. The Windows VM was actually for a game server which has been moved to another vlan, so I did not want to make a windows machine just for Unifi, and definitly don't want the management server on the other vlan.

And windows is far from lightweight. LOL. Well, XP/2003 is not that bad, but still, Linux is better.

I don't want to change the IP of this server as it serves other purposes, such as DNS, but I'll try the manual AP upgrade and see how that goes. I was a bit reluctant to do that in case I brick it.
Click to expand...

I meant unifi is lightweight. I run it on a general purpose windows vm with a few other things and that unifi install supports a bunch of client sites too.
 
sc0tty8 said:
I think you need to get to 2.0. How the hell are you on such an old ass build??
Click to expand...

Because I never got around or had a need to update it till now. :p It's always worked, and was kinda a set and forget thing. The firmware on my microwave is probably even older. :D I just decided I wanted to add the management software again for the nice features, and ability to make changes, but used the latest version instead of one on the CD as I wanted the Linux version. The AP actually STILL works (without the management) so I think the restore command was not doing anything. I'll probably try that manual update later. Guessing I'll have to do that to the other APs too when I go to install them. I might do them all at same time for good measure.
 
Got it working!

Did the manual update, still was not working then turns out the old server was actually STILL running, I had no idea, and since I "retired" it (apparently forgot the part about actually turning it off lol), I no longer had a way to connect to it, as the old setup was a pain to access and I just never set it up the last time I reinstalled my workstation. Basically a bunch of virtualbox VM windows so I had to VNC into the host to see them, and I can't seem to find a decent VNC client on this distro for some reason. So I just sshed in and killed the vm instance. Dirty, but that was just a test server and minecraft server which are on another VM in my new environment now.

So long story short, it seems the old controller software kept taking the AP back after I would hard reset it. That explains why the hard reset seemed to not be working and why it kept going to the old IP, it would just put the old settings back. So after killing the server I was able to adopt it in the new system. On the AP I also had to set a host file entry for "unifi" to the IP of the controller server. Kinda dirty, but it seems it's the only way as no matter what you set the inform url to it keeps going back to "http://unifi:8080/inform". Googled this and it's a known issue apparently.
 
Did you upgrade it? Inform works fine on the newer builds. I use it for many clients.
 
Yeah I did, it's at 3.2.10. I used the firmware that is available in the /dl folder. I have not tried one of the other fresh APs yet though, this may potentially have to do with the fact that the AP was already managed, there may have been something left over after the upgrade that caused it to have issues. But either way it seems to work fine now and is communicating with the management server.

I want to add another AP in my living room so I'll probably do that at some point later and it's nice to know I got the management software running in a proper VM in my new environment now as it should be a snap to add a new one.
 
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