Package Request: Ubiquiti UniFi Controller Software
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This is a pretty straightforward install but it'd be great to have it run in a jail as an official package. For those that are curious, this is the management software for Ubiquiti Switches, APs, Gateways & Phones.
Only dependencies are MongoDB and OpenJDK. Latest Unix download link can be found on their blog: https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi-Updates-Blog/bg-p/Blog_UniFi
Reference link for installing: http://www.robpeck.com/2015/03/installing-the-ubiquiti-unifi-controller-software-on-pfsense-2.2/#.VevJyNaAvPk
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Yeah, it "only" needs Java. Putting that on your firewall is trully excelllent idea. ::) :o
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Hence the jail. You give it it's own IP and only open it up internally.
You say that like Java isn't running on every Cisco ASA.
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A little Raspi is probably the better way to go.
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Or a VM. Don't we all have a small, low-power, virtual infrastructure at home these days? :P
FreeNAS would be a better choice than pfSense for this. It might even exist already.
Hence the jail. You give it it's own IP and only open it up internally.
You say that like Java isn't running on every Cisco ASA.
Serving up Java applets to management/VPN clients (ASDM/WebVPN) is a completely different thing than running Java on the firewall. Or are you maintaining that the ASAs themselves run Java? If so, please provide a link. I'd love to read it.
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Ok gents. Point taken. Maybe OpenJDK is overkill and we can run this with a JVM. Just find it hard to belief that running this in a container or jail would be such an issue especially if it's running on an internal NAT'd IP behind the firewall.
Yeah, I could run this on a VM… Currently doing it this way. FreeNAS and RasPi's are also options... But in terms of keeping the network and it's management consolidated to one box... That's a pretty sweet proposition for a capable pfsense box.
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Well there are instructions right - so do it that way. Why do you need a package? While many of the packages are written by people that wanted some functionality to me, and this is only my personal opinion since I have no ties to the development.
The inclusion of a package you can click an install is somewhat of a signoff by the developers that it is ok to do such a thing. Take freeradius package for example or the vnstat2, or snort or squid. While these packages sometimes break and can break functionality of the pfsense in general. I might be in left field on that, but that is how I see it.
You don't see any packages for turning pfsense into a nas now do you ;) Many a request for that over the years.
If you want a package, please create one or maybe put in a bounty for it, etc. If gets high enough sure someone will take it on - then it would be up to the developers if included in the package list or not, etc.
But for now if you really want it running on pfsense - I am quite sure I have seem a quide or even 2 on how to do so over on the unifi forums.
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I doubt we'll ever put Java on the firewall to run this is way. Jails are probably not going to happen any time soon, but maybe bhyve VMs in the future.
There was a GUI/widget that someone made but it had far too much stuff hardcoded or hacked up to be feasible as a general purpose system.
I'd keep the unifi controller off the firewall, personally. It can run on anything, and unless you're using the Unifi built-in captive portal it doesn't even need to stay running.
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I run the controller on a vm on the same esxi host that I run pfsense as vm on. But yeah it can run pretty much on anything, windows, linux, mac - you can run it in the cloud on multiple platforms aws, azure.. Or as already mentioned a cheap little raspberry pi.
While yes you can just run it to set up the AP and then turn it off, its nice to keep running to get stats and details of connected clients, etc. But sure unless your using specific featues you can just turn it off once your APs are setup.
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Well there are instructions right - so do it that way. Why do you need a package? While many of the packages are written by people that wanted some functionality to me, and this is only my personal opinion since I have no ties to the development.
The inclusion of a package you can click an install is somewhat of a signoff by the developers that it is ok to do such a thing. Take freeradius package for example or the vnstat2, or snort or squid. While these packages sometimes break and can break functionality of the pfsense in general. I might be in left field on that, but that is how I see it.
You don't see any packages for turning pfsense into a nas now do you ;) Many a request for that over the years.
If you want a package, please create one or maybe put in a bounty for it, etc. If gets high enough sure someone will take it on - then it would be up to the developers if included in the package list or not, etc.
But for now if you really want it running on pfsense - I am quite sure I have seem a quide or even 2 on how to do so over on the unifi forums.
I had this running on my pfSense appliance and it was a huge problem. Most services would not start upon reboot and that's if a requested reboot would take place. UPnP would not work due to the Java using a shared port (1900 if I recall). This would need to be a supported package or just not run on the pfSense appliance. I went with the latter.
