PFSense and Unifi: how to get to Unifi Switches

Networking & Firewalls
1

hello,

I have been thinking to remove our UDM Pro (we have 2) and replace with a PFSense NetGate 6100.

We have 16 cameras, about 20 pc’s, lighting system pc, HVAC system, streaming PC, TruNAS system, and 6 unifi AP’s, two PowerBeams to connect a building, and VOIP’s.

Lots of systems. The UDM Pro has failed 2 times in the last 3 months. and rebuilding is getting hard to keep up with. We need a reliable system.

Within all this, we have Unifi switches and other types of unmanaged switches.

My biggest problem is figuring out how to get to the unifi switches to ensure the correct vLans are set on the ports and to set the port security for each.

I watched the videos on how to setup the PFSense box and generally get it, although it is a bit more than I am used to but can’t see how to get to the switches once I setup the PFSense Box.

is there a tutorial or someone who can explain how I would get to the switches? And do I setup the switches, unifi Wifi, and cameras as static within unifi or within PFSense?

2

Hello,

I have a similar setup with a SG-5100 firewall/router, Unifi switches and APs. pfSense manages the VLANs, DHCP server and defines all the static IPs. The UniFi controller utility is running on a gen 2 Cloudkey where it manages all the switches and APs.

I’ve never messed with a UDM device before but I would imagine you’ll need to export all your switch and AP configs to a free-standing device running the UniFi controller application. I use the Cloudkey because it’s a convenient and compact POE device, but you can use a PC or RPi if you wish…

pfSense and UniFi play nice together.

3

I have a video here on how to setup pfsense and UniFi VLANs and rules.

1 Like
4

Thanks! I am thinking from what @LTS_Tom posted and @azdeltawye posted, both are using a cloud key to get to the switches and it is connected directly to “one of the Unifi switches”?

If that is true and I change the port on the PFSense to a vLan…say: 192.168.50.1/24 and connect the cable to the unifi switch from that vLan’d port, that would change the switch IP and If I connect the cloud key to the unifi switch the default cloud key IP would still be the 192.168.1.8 or would that change the cloud key IP? I I guess I would see the connected devices…switches, and the cloud key ip in Pf Sense?

Sorry not a network engineer here, LOL…hope that makes sense?

5

You’re going to have some downtime unless you have a whole lot of available ports to play with… So plan ahead.

I can try to help plan it out a little bit at a “top level” - how many network segments do you have now, and if multiple are you using VLANs currently?

6

@mikensan
We have broken our system into vLans and we have our office PC’s printers in one, cameras in another, wifi in another, and our annex in another, and our hvac is one, the lighting is currently mixed into the cameras which i wanted to separate. and the phones I have started the plan to run new lines to separate them off the PC’s.