Here you can find detailed instructions on how to run a dockerized Unifi controller using docker-compose and create a systemd service for it.
Docker
Make sure to have Docker and Docker-compose installed. For Debian Linux you just need to install the following packages.
apt update && apt install -y docker-ce docker-compose
Docker application location
In order to run the container we need to create a location eg: /opt/containers/unifi and store our configuration in there.
mkdir -p /opt/containers/unifi
Configuration
In order to run the Unifi controller we need to specify the following environment variables
- UNIFI_DATA_PATH is mandatory and specifies the path in the Host for the controller data
- UNIFI_LOG_PATH is mandatory and specifies the path in the Host for the controller logs
- UNIFI_IP is optional and is set when you want the controller to listen on a specific IP. In order for it to work you need to add a semicolon at the end. If left blank it will listen to all interfaces.
/opt/containers/unifi/.env defines all necessary environment variables
# MANDATORY - path in the host that will keep the unifi controller data
UNIFI_DATA_PATH=/opt/containers/unifi/data
# MANDATORY - path in the host that will keep the unifi controller logs
UNIFI_LOG_PATH=/opt/containers/unifi/log
# OPTIONAL - IP of the host that the controller will listen on
#UNIFI_IP=192.168.1.2:
Compose File
/opt/containers/unifi/docker-compose.yml defines the services, networks, and volumes for the Unifi Docker application
version: "3"
services:
unifi:
restart: always
image: jacobalberty/unifi:latest
ports:
- "${UNIFI_IP}8080:8080"
- "${UNIFI_IP}443:8443"
- "${UNIFI_IP}3478:3478/udp"
volumes:
- ${UNIFI_DATA_PATH}:/unifi/data
- ${UNIFI_LOG_PATH}:/unifi/log
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
Systemd service definition
/etc/systemd/system/docker-compose-unifi.service defines the service that starts and stops the Docker application for the system
[Unit]
Description=Unifi container
Requires=docker.service
After=docker.service
[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/opt/containers/unifi
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker-compose up --force-recreate --pull always --remove-orphans
ExecStop=/usr/bin/docker-compose down
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
Enable and run service
source /opt/containers/unifi/.env && mkdir -p "${UNIFI_DATA_PATH}" "${UNIFI_LOG_PATH}"
systemctl daemon-reload && \
systemctl enable docker-compose-unifi && \
systemctl start docker-compose-unifi
Visit Unifi Controller UI
You should be able to visit your container at port 443 using the IP you specified in the .env file. eg: https://192.168.1.2