By L1ks — Aug 5, 2023

Ubiquiti devices SSH cheatsheet

Most Ubiquiti access points need a controller to be managed (Unifi), but there are certain scenarios when we need to access the device via SSH to perform various actions, most of them I will explain here.

Take in consideration that when a device has been adopted once with a controller, th SSH acces must be enabled on that controller settings and the username and password is set and dependant on such controller, all of the devices adopted will have the same credentials. Is the device is brand new or has been reset to default configuration the credentials use to be:

UniFi Gateways - root / ubnt
UniFi Consoles - root / ubnt
UniFi Devices - ubnt / ubnt

Essential SSH Commands

Basic Information

info

Displays device details including:

Operating mode
Firmware version
MAC address
IP address
Hostname
Uptime
Status
Inform address

Controller Association

set-inform http://URL-OF-CONTROLLER:8080/inform

Points the device to a specific controller for adoption. Note: This command typically needs to be executed twice unless you have a DNS entry for UniFi that resolves to your controller's IP address.

Factory Reset

syswrapper.sh restore-default

Restores the device to factory default settings.

Firmware Updates

Method 1: Offline Update

For devices without internet access:

Download firmware from UI.com Download Page
Copy the firmware file to /tmp/ on the device via SSH
Rename the .bin file to fwupdate.bin
Execute the update:

cd /tmp/ syswrapper.sh upgrade2 &

The device will automatically reboot after the update.

Method 2: Online Update

For devices with internet access:

SSH into the device
Run the upgrade command with the direct firmware URL:

upgrade https://dl.ui.com/unifi/firmware/[DEVICE-SPECIFIC-PATH]/[FIRMWARE-FILE].bin

Additional Resources

For more detailed information about UniFi device management:

Note: Always ensure you're using the correct firmware version for your specific device model.