Jumped the Ubiquiti shark- looking for a sanity check

IdiotInCharge

IdiotInCharge

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I've been meaning to move to something more substantial than consumer routers, primarily for personal learning. I can't say that what I have used has not been sufficient for my individual needs.

So moving to Ubiquiti products is really just a choice for education.

Here's what I have coming:

EdgeRouter 4 (ER-4)

UniFi Switch 8 60W

UAP-AC-PRO-E

And this little console to USB cable.


Right off the bat, I realize that the EdgeRouter has its own interface and that the UniFi switch and wireless access point must be managed by an application or their management device, which I do not plan to purchase. My reasoning for going with the ER-4 is that the USG (UniFi Security Gateway) doesn't seem spec'd to handle 1Gbit class internet, something that I will likely be looking toward in the near future. I will still be able to set up VLANs on the ER-4 and add those to the switch and AP. I'd be looking to VLAN off stuff like media devices, IoT (thermostat, vacuum), work laptop that lives entirely on a VPN, and regular computing devices. I'd also like to be able to run VPN services from the router, both for internal clients and for public reachback to my LAN, and I'd like to host services locally as well.

Questions: is there anything I should be concerned about here in terms of compatibility or setup, and potentially a cheaper but similarly robust, flexible, and intuitive alternative that I missed?
 
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For personal learning Ubiquiti is its own beast if you're just looking to get down general networking concepts like vLans and such and not go professional side to networking it should work fine, its solid equipment for the cost overall.
The USG used to have 1GB issues, that was resolved with firmware patches if I remember correctly (I only have 400/40, but have no issues atm).
I ended up with the full Unifi setup (USG, 24p non-poe, AC-HD) I mainly wanted all the pretty lights to show up on the dash board :D.
I just run the unifi application in docker, but I have a esxi lab dedicated for my infrastructure items so wasn't a concern for me.

The edgerouter should be able to facilitate any VPN site to site or forwarding services you want to configure to host local items you just need the right settings.
The only compatibility concern I can think of is the VPN site to sites which generally can be corrected by changing the settings.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Questions: is there anything I should be concerned about here in terms of compatibility or setup, and potentially a cheaper but similarly robust, flexible, and intuitive alternative that I missed?
Click to expand...

Manual configuration between the ER-4 and the UniFi switch, basically configure the router, then configure the switch via the UniFi dashboard. As opposed to having the USG in the "single pane" interface with all of your other UniFi gear...

Download and install the UniFi software on your PC, you don't need the CloudKey, Pi, or dedicated machine for the controller.
- https://www.ubnt.com/download/unifi/

It only needs to run for configuration, and technically for data collection (if you want stats), and it's also needed for the guest sign on page if you intend to use that. Otherwise it doesn't need to be active once everything is deployed. CloudKey was cheap enough for me...

I intend to pick up a USG Pro 4, and a 16 Port 150W PoE switch at some point, I'm still rocking an older HP non-PoE switch, 1U Untangle server and my older UniFi AP... It's solid, that and I'm technically a jobless hobo, so no unnecessary spending ATM...
 
Thanks for the info!

Stuff should get here Tuesday, so I'll get a chance to start setting it up in stages as suggested- ER-4 then US-8 then AP-Pro.
 
You'll still have two interfaces...

upload_2018-6-11_10-44-37.png


https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012195187-UNMS-Getting-Started
 
Renapd said:
The USG handles gigabit just fine. Happy owner here.
Click to expand...

I could get a consumer router to do the same thing; I'm grabbing Ubiquiti's prosumer/SOHO stuff to work with more. So, the issue with the USG is that performance tanks when you ask it to do anything 'more' than route. Obviously this is variable and it works for you, but the extra performance and flexibility therein is why I when with the Edgerouter 4 instead. If Ubiquiti had a USG based on the ER-4, I would have gone that way and went all Unifi, but having two interfaces doesn't bother me much ;).
 
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