Migrating UniFi OS from Windows-Suggestions

Networking & Firewalls
1

Currently I have a single Windows machine left on my network. It is currently configured as my controller with UniFi OS server. I would like to move it off of that machine to my Linux machine. I have some instructions for doing that that don’t appear to hard.

But I also have a TrueNas mini that I have wondered if it could host the software itself. Unifi does supply Linux software but nothing that would be native for TrueNas. In poking around and asking AI there was a suggestion for creating a Linux VM on TrueNas and then installing UniFi to it. It appears doable but I don’t have the knowledge base to know if this is a wise choice.

The impetus for the change is when I get this software working on Linux and transition of document scanner to Linux I will no longer have a need for this Windows install. At that time I will be transitioning it to LInux, hopefully Pop-OS 26.04 when/if it is released soon. This will thankfully complete a slow several year transition for my family to Linux (The wife was the hardest but she is totally sold now).

So:

  • Is the software installed on a Linux box most stable/easiest to install/maintain?
  • Would a VM on Truenas be as easy to maintain/upgrade?

I’m not wanting to blaze a new path but if there is a well traveled, and relatively well supported alternative I would like to investigate that more fully.

Thanks for any assistance!

2

would you be open to run it as a docker image on your truenas instead of running a whole VM with all the related overhead for just one app?

3

I’m not a skilled networker just a hobbyist trying to learn and do some new things So I should research Docker a little more.. Have watched a few video’s on them but never had a reason to try them. Thanks for the suggestion Any good resources you would recommend to learn more?

4

There is no official docker support for the UniFI networking app. A VM in TrueNAS and using their installer would be a better approach.

5

Although not “official”, linuxserver.io has one: GitHub - linuxserver/docker-unifi-network-application · GitHub . Been using it for a while with no problems.

6

Just for anyone else - look at the dockerfile to see how the container is constructed. In this case it uses Linuxserver’s custom image as a base image, apt installs the below, downloads a firmware zip from unifi and then unzips & moves it to /usr/lib/unifi. You can specify a custom version so there’s an if statement for that otherwise it just downloads the latest from: https://fw-update.ubnt.com/

jsvc \
logrotate \
openjdk-25-jre-headless \
unzip && \