Make sure you have binwalk installed
sudo apt install binwalk
Download the firmware from Ubiquiti’s website
https://ui.com/download/software/uap-ac-lite
We’ll need to extract the images a couple of times
binwalk -e 6.5.54.bin cd ./_6.5.54.bin.extracted binwalk -e 50FEE cd _50FEE.extracted/ binwalk -e 3C7CC4
The last binwalk will extract the actual file system.
cd _3C7CC4.extracted/cpio-root
Here are some links and notes on archiving a UniFi Protect’s footage.
Apparently, the .ubv files just need to be remuxed to .mp4 so they are easily playable. On the UniFi Protect appliances, they have a ubnt_ubvexport and ubnt_ubvinfo binary that can do the remux. You can copy the binary off and run it with QEMU on x86 hardware.
https://github.com/danielfernau/unifi-protect-video-downloader
https://github.com/petergeneric/unifi-protect-remux
https://durdle.com/2022/01/22/extract-unifi-protect-video/
We can setup rsync to copy the raw footage off the Unifi Protect appliance. Once we have it locally, we can use the remux tool to convert the files to .mp4 so we can easily view them.
A cool thing about using rsync, is if our copy gets interrupted, we can just rerun the command and it will pick up where it left off without duplicating anything.
The following command is a mouthful. It searches for all the recorded video files for cameras with the MAC addresses specified. (MAC addresses can be found from the web interface), There are only a couple things to change or tweak for the command to work for you.
MAC1 should be the MAC address of camera 1 while MAC2 is the MAC address of the next camera we want to archive.
Change the dst_directory to the archive directory or drive.
And of course we need to change the IP address (10.0.0.1) to the UniFi Protect IP address.
ssh root@10.0.0.1 'find /srv/unifi-protect/video/ \( -name "MAC1*" -o -name "MAC2*" \) -printf %P\\0\\n' | rsync -a -v --exclude="*timelapse*" --files-from=- root@10.0.0.1:/src/unifi-protect/video/ dst_directory/
Here are the details for the commands.
Before we can use remux, we need to setup a local copy of ubnt_ubvinfo.
You should be able to use the following scp command to copy the ubnt_ubvinfo or ubnt_ubvexport binary from the UniFi Protect appliance.
scp root@10.0.0.1:/usr/share/unifi-protect/app/node_modules/.bin/ubnt_ubvexport ./
To install on Intel or AMD CPU’s, check out the following section on the unifi-protect-remux page.
https://github.com/petergeneric/unifi-protect-remux#quick-start-for-x86-linux
As a side note, it looks like you can download an old x86 version of ubnt_ubvinfo from archive.org. Use at your own discretion.
wget https://archive.org/download/ubnt_ubvinfo/ubnt_ubvinfo
Install ffmpeg
apt install -y ffmpeg
or
dnf install -y ffmpeg
Now we can download and install remux.
wget https://github.com/petergeneric/unifi-protect-remux/releases/download/v3.0.6/remux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar zxf remux-x86_64.tar.gz
sudo mv remux /usr/bin/
Now we can remux the files.
remux --with-audio=true dst_directory/*.ubv
You will need to script a way to recursively loop through the directories, or just do it manually.
Here are some links for setting up a custom SSL Certificate of a UniFi Cloud Key. Should be similar to do on a UDM, or other UniFi Controller.
https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/128281-use-lets-encrypt-ssl-certs-with-unifi-cloud-key
https://www.ssldragon.com/how-to/install-ssl-certificate/unifi-cloud-key/
The format for the UniFi inform URL should be similar to the following
a38927b1-23aa-e95d-94b4-8394abce9302.unifi-hosting.ui.comThe inform URL is supposed to be on the cloud console page. However, it appears that it doesn’t show the link if you are not Owner.
Web Development Tools to the rescue!
On the UniFi console page, click on “About this Console”
Open up the Web Tools, Click on the Network tab, make sure that you have the Domain column enabled.
Refresh the page.
Look for the Domain that matches the UniFi Cloud URL format.
Example: a38927b1-23aa-e95d-94b4-8394abce9302.unifi-hosting.ui.com
You can confirm this is the correct URL by browsing to it directly. It should redirect to your cloud instance.
Extra tip: If you are migrating from a UniFi Console (CloudKey, UDM, DreamMachine) to UniFi Cloud, you can restore a backup of your CloudKey (Or other console) and then use the Host Inform Override option (from CloudKey) to tell all the devices on the network to connect to the cloud instance. May need to reboot or force provision.
Mark manages the Ubiquiti UniFi applications at Incredigeek Inc. and is unable to access the UniFi controller. It starts loading and then stops. The URL bar shows that it is trying to load a null network site.
Thankfully the WiFi is still working, Mark thinks to himself, but how am I supposed to manage the network? I am able to access the UniFi Core application, so maybe I can login using a secure shell and check on the application.
ssh root@192.168.1.1
Once logged in, and after using the google, he finds that unifi-os restart will restart the UniFi applications. But I just need to restart the Network application. Running “unifi-os” –help reveals the following options.
# unifi-os --help Usage: /usr/sbin/unifi-os [stop start restart shell 'update url']
Oh shell!
unifi-os shell
Alternatively, we know that on the UDM’s the UniFi Applications are run inside a Docker container. We could run “docker ps” to show the containers and then “docker exec -it unifi-os bash”
Now we can restart just the UniFi Network application.
systemctl restart unifi
It can take a little bit to restart.
There appears to be a bug on the UDM Pro that you can encounter while trying to update your WAN IP addresses. The error was similar to “Can’t change IP Address “PublicIP” used in Default Network”
It appears that the issue stems from the Internet Source IP being used in the LAN Network settings.
The way to work around this is to disable the Internet Source IP. However, this is greyed out which keeps us from making any changes. We can however use the Chrome Developer tools to get around this restriction.
$$('[disabled]').forEach( a => a.disabled=false )
Swap back to the new user interface and go change the WAN IP address.
I found the following post that has a very comprehensive list of UniFi commands.
Some of the most common ones that are used
Reset a device
set-default
or
syswrapper.sh restore-default
Reboot a device
reboot
Connect device to a controller
After you run this command, adopt it in the controller and then run the command again.
set-inform http://ip-of-controller:8080/inform
Also note that the above command does not seem to work over https.
While the UniFi controller is nice and everything, it does make it hard to see if a device is already adopted. At least if you have a ton of sites. Fortunately, we can search the database directly to find out if a UniFi is already adopted and which site it is assigned to.
First we need to connect to MongoDB. And then we need to use the ace database.
mongo -port 27117
use ace
This command will list all the devices on the controller. Regardless of which site they are assigned to.
db.device.find({}, { site_id:"", ip : "", name :"", mac:""})
Example output
{ "_id" : ObjectId("563a4d94e4b054e5376fc600"), "mac" : { "_id" : ObjectId("563a4d94e4b054e5376fc600"), "mac" : "44:d9:e7:34:d1:08", "ip" : "192.168.1.200", "name" : "Main_WiFi", "site_id" : "39485e9abf0e9a047bcded96" }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("9873b39ed1f5d30a6738abe"), "mac" : "44:d9:e7:01:a3:d4", "ip" : "192.168.1.201", "name" : "Testing_Wifi", "site_id" : "39485e9abf0e9a047bcded96" }
Each UniFi will have a “site_id”. You can use that ID to figure out which site it is assigned to.
db.site.find()
Example output
{ "_id" : ObjectId("39485e9abf0e9a047bcded96"), "name" : "default", "desc" : "Testing Site", "attr_hidden_id" : "default", "attr_no_delete" : true, "anonymous_id" : "83ae20ba-2948-458e-fd0a-1320583ecb04" }
Using our “site_id” from above, we see that the Testing_Wifi device is assigned to the “Testing Site” on the controller.
Something else to look at would be to use the UniFi controller API.
Some of the UniFi UNVR’s have system files on a USB drive. There seem to be a number of the drives failing recently, rendering the UNVR inoperable. Fortunately it is easy to replace. The following steps should preserve the video recordings.
Note on Recovery
You could potentially mount the failed or failing USB drive on a Linux machine copy off a UniFi backup. Unfortunately, the UniFi Protect backup does not preserve the users. Just the video groups. You will probably have to resend invites to users.
It sounds like the UniFi Protect system will try to read the drives and if it can preserve the data or read the raid information it will try to use that. That is what it sounds like at least from the forums. More info on drive management.
You will need a hash of the password to put into the database. We don’t cover that in this post. You could copy the password from a different user account or use a different UniFi instance to change the password and then check the DB to find the hash.
ssh unifiadmin@unifiserver
Connect to Mongo by typing in the following.
mongo -port 27117
Then select the ace database by typing
use ace
The admins are in the admin collection/table. Use the following command to list all the users and their name, email, and password hash.
db.admin.find({ }, { name:"" , email : "", "x_shadow" : "" })
The following looks complex. Fortunately though you should be able to copy and paste. You should only need to change the
– ObjectId to your User Id
– Password Hash to your password hash
db.admin.update({"_id" : ObjectId("223abc5489de0a93be758493")}, {$set: { "x_shadow" : "$6$nwpi7.q2$OuD9/UZGZt5cD739Dt7j8Gb1uPtfU99p0DeDSurSNBZVizieUrFVFbRufiZMgOk2IaaDZN9BVmL9yUwQ2mC8f."}});
Note: The hash above is password. Not recommended for use.
You should receive a confirmation that it succeeded. Test the new password by logging into the UniFi Controller.
For more MongoDB commands, check out this post.