Manually Adding Ubiquiti Unifi Access Point or Switch to Unifi Contoller

This is the process to add a new Unifi AP or Switch to the Unifi controller when discovery doesn’t work.  In our case, we have a central Unifi controller managing APs or Switch on multiple networks.  But, the routers don’t allow the discovery tool to see new APs on other networks, so this is how we add one.  In this example, we’ll say the Unifi controller is at 192.168.8.9.


1) Write down (or take a picture on your phone) the MAC address for the new Device

2) Connect the new Unifi AP or Switch

3) Check DHCP or  IP Scanner to see what IP address was given to the Unifi Device.

Once you have the IP, we’ll use putty to ssh into the device.  In this example, we’ll use 192.168.10.40.

start putty01

NOTE: If the Device has been provisioned before, you’ll have to use the password for the Unifi controller it was provisioned by.

login as: ubnt
password: ubnt


NOTE: If the Device has been provisioned before, you’ll have to reset it to factory defaults.  to do that, use the following command, and then SSH back into the device when it comes back up.

> syswrapper.sh restore-default

Aften than update the Firmware on your device

> upgrade "FW url"

Example:
> upgrade http://dl.ubnt.com/unifi/firmware/US24P250/3.9.42.9152/US.bcm5334x.v3.9.42.9152.180709.2252.bin

Since this is a brand new Device for us, we just need to do this:

> set-inform http://192.168.8.9:8080/inform

Next, we go connect to the Unifi command center.  In a few minutes, we should see an alert stating a new device has checked in.  If you don’t see the alert, check the device list, it should show up there as “Unknown”.  From either location (alerts or ap device list), you should have a button that says “Adopt”.  Adopt the new AP and go back to the SSH shell.

Send the command again, this should allow the AP to see that it has been adopted.

> set-inform http://192.168.1.55:8080/inform

Now you should see the new AP provisioned in the Unifi controller and you can edit the name and update the AP firmware.