Just noticed in the past week or so that Ubiquiti's UniFi 8 port switches are shown as #1 new release on Amazon:
And #1 best seller on B&H:
I knew they had gained some traction, but this surprised me. In our last Favorite Network Switches survey, they were barely mentioned (though only the EdgeSwitch line was available then, I think).
So, are you using Ubiquiti switches? Which models? Any stand out features worth mentioning?
I'm also curious what switches these are replacing? The old favorites like Cisco, Netgear, etc., or cheaper models like TrendNet or TP-Link?
Our customer specified Ubiquiti TS-8 and for the price I think they are great. For the same price as a dumb 8 port POE switch, we get an addressable POE switch that can reboot devices if they go off line. Plus they have 24v and 48V, and every switch gets at least one radio so they are really working out for us.
I have seen and have not done enough testing to be conclusive but when we use a discovery tool, sometimes the switches don't allow us to find devices that are on different subnets, such as when a device defaults.
Strange thing on Amazon, it's quite a new listing, and also reading the Q&A seems it's mixed up with a different model!
I think they made a mistake in the product category. Unable to data mine the sales for this item because an error on the listing.
;-)
I haven't used them for surveillance yet, but the Unifi switches paired with Unifi access points are pretty amazing. You can see the entire topology of your network in a very fancy GUI. It's pretty trivial to locate which port a misbehaving access point is plugged into and power cycle just that port (we used to have to keep these details in our installation notes to accomplish this). Pairing with a Unifi security gateway brings all sorts of interesting metrics for WiFi setups.
The big caveat is that Unifi switches (like all Unifi products) require a Unifi controller to unlock all the awesomeness. You can also install the controller on any always-on PC (windows, mac, or linux) on the network, but we usually opt for the cloud key ($75).
James, good info. How do you feel about being locked into the Unifi ecosystem with them? We bought one to replace an aging Cisco and I'm torn on how much I like it. Having to use the Unifi controller to manage everything might save time if we were all Unifi, but with a mix of manufacturers here it's a pain. And I can't SNMP monitor them, either.
That being said, if a network were using the USG, the switches, and the APs, I could see the benefit.
You aren't really "locked in". You can have only switches / only AP's / only the security gateway / etc. I don't find mixing manufacturers any more painful with Unifi than without. It would be better if their devices could act standalone.
As for SNMP, there's definitely an option to enable it:
There are plenty of youtube consultants for Ubiquiti right now. The learning curve is one click away. Ubiquiti is a good product to introduce to the technicians that have the aptitude to progress.
I have started using them. My only reservation is when they decide to fail on an upgrade. However, when upgrading the APs, if they fail to upgrade they seem to always reboot and remain on the firmware they were on prior to running the upgrade. I would use these over Netgear since Netgear doesn't have a console port on most of their switches so when the upgrade fails, it generally becomes bricked. A service call can't fix a bricked Netgear; only advanced replacement can. The sad thing is that they publish firmware updates on their website and those fail.
I do like the setup on the Unifi controller for them. My only complaint is that I would like to name all ports and setup all ports from one screen and then click apply. I don't like having to go to each port and set them up individually from the GUI. I believe the release of these smaller switches in the Unifi and the EdgeMAX series will help replace some of the ToughSwitch Pro Switches.
I would never install the Unifi controller on a PC unless it were a server that is regularly maintained. I host the controller via Digital Ocean but it seems the cloud key is a nice unit and a decent alternative. Since I already have the DO setup, I don't plan on switching.
I do think they need to integrate 2FA into their controller for better security though.
We've gone the cloud server route before (EC2, then GCE). But setting the inform URL on everything (esp when replacing bad units, etc), is just a pain. Having an onsite tool that does discovery is pretty awesome. Recent firmware allows the cloud key to be a browser based SSH proxy into some AP's (only works for UAC-PRO's for now, from what I can tell).
Setting the inform is pretty painless. You can do it via SSH but I set it using the discovery tool. Before install, I plug all the devices into my test network and adopt all the devices to the planned site using the discovery tool. The only trouble you run into is if DHCP isn't enabled on the network they are being installed on. The only feature that would be nice on the discovery tool that I don't believe is currently available would be the option to set inform on multiple units at the same time. Although if you have multiple devices, you can just copy/paste the inform multiple times.
I don't find this any more of a pain than settings IP addresses on cameras using a config tool.
Have you tested using DHCP option 43? Just got a whole setup of UNIFI working with the big router, 48port switch, and PRO AP with our own Amazon controller. I really like the visibility of the network that you get with this setup.
Haven't tried that, but it would make sense on large installs. It would be "Plug and Play" out of the box. This wouldn't be needed for any install that has a Unifi router.
Even if you have a unifi router you still need to set-inform on all the unifi hardware when using a cloud account.
Plan would be having a small UBNT router with DHCP option 43 setup and when new UNIFI hardware comes in we just plug it into this router and it automatically gets assigned our cloud account.
Jon have you used the Unifi switches for any large projects? I have one coming up where we will be pushing 700-800Mbps to the NVR. I would be installing 10GB backbone and uplinks to the server. Just want to see if Unifi will be stable with this much continues traffic.
Our only "large" client has HP switches campus wide that are administered by their in house IT department. That said, I would likely stay with Cisco/HP for large networks. Unifi is great for the smaller systems. I just wouldn't risk a large install with a product with such limited support. But I'm generally risk adverse when it comes to larger clients.
I haven't tested it with the Unifi router but I have tested DHCP option 43 on the EdgeRouter Lite by entering the controller public IP in the Unifi Controller field within the DHCP settings of the EdgeRouter. I'm sure the Unifi router functions in a similar manner, but it may happen automatically since you need to set inform on the Unifi router.
It looks like their support page shows how to setup option 43 on other routers that aren't UBNT. I tried the hosted AWS solution through Amazon when I first tested the cloud controller, but I found it became very expensive compared to hosting on Digital Ocean.
I hadn't adopted in this manner before because I don't have too many sites that use a UBNT router and those sites don't have tons of APs so I have always provisioned the devices before going on site. But this would be useful if you were deploying more than 10 APs and were using all Ubiquiti hardware. I would think to set it up on another non Ubiquiti router for automatic provisioning, I would want more than 20 devices to provision. Using the discovery tool doesn't take that long because it's only copying and pasting the URL a few times.
My thought is to use this at the shop so the switches can be adopted with minimum effort before going in the field. The product comes in the door. Warehouse manager checks equipment in and pulls the switch out the box to test and plugs it into a dedicated small network/router with option 43 enabled. We will be testing this next week to see how it works.
Have you completed any large IP video projects with Unifi switches?
On your Amazon account, how many devices did you have connected when you were getting charged so much on the AWS server? I would think a WIFI Unifi setup would use more data than standard IP video network when it comes to management traffic.
I haven't completed large video projects with Unifi switches. I have used more EdgeSwitches on projects with almost no issues. I am starting to use some Unifi Switches as I do like the cloud monitoring and configuring, but am only using them on smaller projects. The EdgeSwitches and Unifi are essentially the same hardware, but for the longest time the Unifi hardware was more limiting on options that weren't implemented in the GUI. They keep adding more features making me more apt to use it.
Your plan sounds like a good one for quick setup out of the box.
When I was testing, I only had a few Unifi AP devices at the time, and when I got the bill, I quickly cancelled. This was years back, and I'm not sure what the reasoning was. Perhaps there are more/different options now from Amazon that don't cost as much. This was before multi-site management on the controller was available and before devices besides the APs were available. My current DO cost is around $15/mo. It was $5, but I upgraded to a larger server to handle Spotipo Hotspot Management as I've been experimenting with that.
Almost exclusively use UBNT switches now in favor of Netgear. Ubiquiti has really made some great products recently. The simplicity of having all of their products (Unifi family) cloud managed at the price levels they charge is awesome! They just keep getting better.
I am a little confused on these things. It seems that everything by UBNT is 24volts but most cameras are 12volts. So I use mostly Hik product, does that mean I cannot use these?
You actually are confusing a few things. Most PoE IP cameras are 48V PoE. They may have a 12VDC pigtail for non-PoE networks too. Some cameras will also accept 24VAC via the power pigtail.
UBNT cameras, as well as some of their wireless devices, use what is called Passive PoE at 24V. Their switches can be set to provide this Passive PoE 24V to support these types of devices, but the standard setting is usually Active PoE at 48V, which has many classes and ratings in itself.
Ok makes sense now. I need to ignore the voltage rating and look for the poe rating. In this case they are both rated for 802.3af so Im good.
Thanks
Just grabbed a Edge Router X, Edger Router Lite and ES 8 150W from Amazon to throw on the test bench. I have seen some videos from Ben Pin, Willie Howe and Crosstalk Solutions. Forums look legit with questions, issues debate extending from the GUI, CLI and configuration learning curves. The edge router x and a TP-Link nano router are tools techs need in the field along with a Ravpower battery (all also available on Amazon).
Remember the Edge and Unifi lines are different. If your looking for a centralized monitor/management (SDN) network you want UNIFI. Edge is all device web GUI/CLI managed.
While that is currently true for non-unifi devices, UNMS is in alpha right now. This should be very useful when officially released.
https://unms.ubnt.com/
That is cool and very helpful. I have been looking for a way to manage our PTP and PTMP links besides the current BETA solution.
Was looking for an alternative to Cisco Small Businesses switches we have been using with good and sometimes not so good results. The VPN aspects has become more i portant now that hackers are wrecking the world with few people notcing or even caring.
Would it be possible for those with experience with Ubiquiti to open a thread/discussion on how to set these up properly? Real world expereince?
Thanks in advance
Frantz check out the UBNT forums and Youtube. There are no shortage of examples and videos on how to setup every part of UNBT hardware.
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