Integrating a TOUGHswitch with a UniFi controller

The UniFi controller provides integration for Ubiquiti's UniFi hardware. An important element that is often used with basic UniFi-based WiFi networks, is the TOUGHswitch, which provides switching and power-over-ethernet capability for the access points. This family of switches, however, does not integrate with the UniFi controller (and it appears Ubiquiti won't do so). This project adds basic read-only support for the UniFi controller to TOUGHswitch firmware.

Important note: this is an adaptation of the official TOUGHswitch firmware, independent of Ubiquiti. It has not been tested thoroughly, and as such it might cause issues, e.g. performance might suffer. Bricking is very unlikely, but not entirely impossible. You may lose your warranty.

Build

To build an adapted version of the TOUGHswitch firmware, you need a number of tools. On Debian or Ubuntu Linux, installing the following will do. Run:

sudo apt-get install make gcc libc6-dev zlib1g-dev wget squashfs-tools

Then download the latest dist.build.tar.gz from the releases page and build it:

tar xzf dist.build.tar.gz
cd build
make firmware

This will download the firmware from Ubiquiti. Then it will be unpacked, modified, and repacked. If all succeeds, this results in a firmware file that you can install directly.

Install

The resulting firmware file SW.v<version>.<build_number>+unifi<version>.bin can be uploaded using the switch's web interface, and after pressing Update and waiting a couple of minutes, a UniFi controller running on the same network would show the switch for adoption. The interface will show UniFi Switch 8 POE-150W for the 8-port TOUGHswitch, and UniFi Switch 8 POE-60W for the 5-port version.

Links

• UniFi protocol

• Help: What protocol does the controller use to communicate with the UAP?
• jk-5/unifi-inform-protocol
• fxkr/unifi-protocol-reverse-engineering
• nutefood/python-ubnt-discovery
• job/ubbnut
• Ubiquiti inform protocol
• model identifiers

• UniFi controller docker image at jacobalberti/unifi
• finish06/unifi-api - utitilies to manage a UniFi controller
• sol1/icinga-ubiquiti-mfi - parser for mFi mca-dump's json output
• mcrute/ubntmfi - web controller for mFi hardware
• OpenWRT on UniFi AP AC
• TOUGHswitch@wikidevi