Introduction

In my post Running the Ubiquiti UniFi Controller as a service I shared how I deploy Ubiquiti UniFi Controller as a Windows service. As I think this should be the default installation option I wrote an new installer  that does exactly that.

Installer to deploy Ubiquiti UniFi Controller as a Windows service

If this is of interest to you can download the Installer to deploy Ubiquiti UniFi Controller as a Windows service and play with is. This is NOT official software, it is for your convenience and at your own risk. I do not own the software, I just made a better installer for myself when I deploy this on a Windows server.

For now it only supports Windows Server with the Desktop experience. It does some checks for X64 bit, Java JRE, but it’s very much a first version. When I have time I’ll try to add support for Windows Server Core. That requires some extra tweaking to deal with that scenario.

The the installer does the following:

• Checks if the Windows  OS is  x64 bit. If not it will quit.
• Checks if you have JRE X64 installed and gives suggestions. It does not install it for you if it’s missing or wrong. It quits.
• Deploys the application under %Program Files% where it belongs.
• It creates all the original short cuts. This includes the one to the controller. but as this is installed as a service with this installer it’s a redundant. But is is there in case you need it – after you unconfigured it as a service for example (unlikely).
• Creates an extra internet browser shortcut to the controller application itself.
• I n my blog post Running the Ubiquiti UniFi Controller as a service on how to get the certificate installed and adopt this shortcut tor your FQDN.

I’m sending it off to some fellow MVPs to have some other eyes test it and find any issues.

Future ideas

I have some plans for future installer improvement (1st of all to reduce my repetitive manual labor):

• Support for core
• Leverage java JDK
• Add an option to feed the installer a certificate so the installer will take care of KeyStore creation and configuration for you.

Do note that this is a spare time effort and I’m not able to cater to any and all needs on demand.