08 December 2023

Migrating from Unifi USG-3P to UDM Pro

Decision

As my USG-3P was getting on in age and no longer getting updates, I have been shopping around for a replacement. Below were the main competitors for me.

UXG-Lite:

  • Price: $129 (plus tax and shipping)
  • WiFi: None
  • Unifi controller: No
  • CPU: Two A53 cores at 1 GHz
  • Memory: 1 GB of DDR3L
  • Storage: N/A 
  • IPS/IDS max throughput: claimed 1Gbps (subject to third party verification)
  • Unifi Protect: No support
UDR:
  • Price: $199 (plus tax and shipping)
  • WiFi: 6 (however, this was to be deployed in my basement so not much help)
  • Unifi controller: Yes
  • CPU: Two A53 cores at 1.35 GHz
  • Memory: 2 GB of ?DDR3L?
  • Storage: 128 GB SSD
  • IPS/IDS max throughput: ~700Mbps
  • Unifi Protect: would need a SD card
UDM Pro:
  • Price: $379 --Black Friday $279-- (plus tax and shipping)
  • WiFi: No
  • Unifi controller: Yes
  • CPU: Four A57 cores at 1.7 GHz
  • Memory: 4 GB of DDR4
  • Storage: 16 GB eMMC
  • IPS/IDS max throughput: ~3.5Gbps
  • Unifi Protect: Hard drive slot
  • Bonus: LAN + WAN SFP+ ports for 10Gbps networking

To me the extra money was worth it to get the UDM Pro for the Black Friday price of $279, but I would probably not for $379. It just seems like a much more capable product that provides the option to expand later (>1Gbps networking, Unifi Protect).

Initial Impressions

Positives:
  • Shipping box contained lots of air pillows
  • High quality foam protecting the device in device packaging
  • Build quality is superb
  • Slide out foam screw holder was a nice organizational touch
Negatives:
  • Single use plastics used to wrap:
    • UDM Pro itself
    • Rack mount ears
    • Instructions, really????

Installation

Background:
  • This guide was written using Unifi Network 8.0.7
  • USG-3P network address is 192.168.1.1
  • Unifi controller is hosted at https://192.168.1.2:8443
Requires:
  • Internet connection
  • Laptop with an ethernet port or a PC that can be hardwired
  • 2x ethernet cords (Only 1 is needed if you have an already hardwired PC)
Here are the steps that I used:
  1. Create a backup from your current Unifi controller on a laptop
    1. Navigate to https://192.168.1.2:8443
    2. Settings -> System -> Backups
    3. Click on `Download`
    4. Select number of days (I chose 7)
    5. Click `Download`
  2. Connect a LAN port on your current network to the WAN port on UDM Pro
    • This is to provide it with internet access
  3. Power on the UDM Pro
  4. Allow it to update (this took several minutes)
  5. Connect a laptop to the LAN port on the UDM Pro
    • May be helpful to disable WiFi on laptop
  6. Setup Wizard on UDM Pro
    1. Navigate to https://unifi/ (for me https://192.168.0.1 also would have worked)
    2. Login with your Unifi account
    3. Do NOT restore from Backup, skip this step
    4. Finish the setup Wizard
  7. Update the Network Application
    • You want it to be >= Unifi controller Network version
  8. Restore the backup
    1. Network -> Settings -> System -> Backups
    2. Click on `Restore`
    3. Select the backup you created above
    4. Click on `Restore`
    5. UDM Pro will restart
  9. UDM Pro web UI will become unresponsive
    • At this point I used the touch screen to reboot the UDM Pro
    • However, this could be unnecessary and may possibly be resolved by forcing the laptop to get a new DHCP address
  10. Ensure your restore happened correctly
    1. Navigate to https://192.168.1.1
    2. Check that the network settings are correct and that your access points are there (but they won't be connected)
  11. Swap out the USG-3P for the UDM Pro
  12. Migrate the Access Points from Unifi controller to UDM Pro
    1. Navigate to https://192.168.1.2:8443
    2. Settings -> General
    3. Click on `Export Site` on the bottom
    4. You can save the export file, but we won't be using it
    5. Click continue on the `Export Site` dialog
    6. Click continue on the `Migrate Site` dialog (no action needed)
    7. Type in the IP address of the UDM Pro (192.168.1.1)
    8. Select the Access Points to migrate
    9. Click `Migrate Devices`
    10. Check in another tab/window that they migrated to the UDM Pro
    11. Click on `Remove Devices`
  13. Done!
All in all, it took me about 1.5 hours, but this included unboxing, attaching the rack mount ears, mounting in the rack, and some research. The good news is that the network downtime was less than 5 minutes!


Overall Impressions

Positives:
  • The migration went smoothly, once I pieced together what needed done
  • Network performance is great
  • IPS has already started blocking network scans
Negatives:
  • Will not fit in a 12" rack that is flush mounted
    • AC plug is very far to one side and almost didn't have enough clearance for the 2x4 supporting my network rack, wish it was more centered
    • Possibly could be resolved by a 90 degree power connector
  • There doesn't seem to be a way to manage the screen
    • It will go into a screensaver mode during the day and turn off at night
    • However, I cannot find settings to change the times for this behavior
    • Update 2024-01-04:
      • To change this you have to set the local account as "Super Admin" on https://unifi.ui.com -> UDM Pro -> OS Settings (At the top looks like a UDM Pro with a gear icon on the bottom right) -> Admins & Users
      • Then you can update it https://192.168.1.1/console-settings
      • I set night mode to start at 10:01 PM and end at 10:00 PM thus keeping the screen off for most of the day
Other thoughts:
  • Lack of detailed official documentation on migration process
  • Topology is wrong because I have a non-Unifi switch and there isn't a way to manually fix

Research that I found:

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