UniFi Controller Migration — CHANGELOG

2026-07-15

Action: Deployed jacobalberty/unifi:latest (v10.0.162) in Docker on app2
Image: Bundles MongoDB internally — single container, no external DB
Caddy proxy: unifi.itpropartner.com:443 → localhost:8443 with tls_insecure_skip_verify
Status: ✅ Controller running, healthy

Obstacle: Fresh controller has zero admin users — can't log in
Fix: Created admin via MongoDB shell (mongosh port 27117) using openssl passwd -6
Credentials: info@itpropartner.com / TempChangeMe123! (changed by user)
Status: ✅

Obstacle: .unf files on old server are encrypted BSON, not standard zip
Fix: Pulled autobackups from 178.156.131.57:/var/lib/unifi/backup/autobackup/
Files: 8 backups (161KB each), base backup 9.0.114.unf (686KB) from Oct 2025
S3 sync set up: Daily cron → s3://hermes-vps-backups/unifi-backups/
Status: ✅ Backups safe in S3

Obstacle: ace.jar restore fails with Spring context errors — can't run concurrently with active controller
Attempts: Stopped UniFi process, ran restore — still failed. Docker volume vs bind mount path confusion.
Resolution: Emailed .unf files to user for manual upload through setup wizard
Status: ⚠️ Pending manual restore by user

jacobalberty/unifi Docker image uses TWO storage volumes: /config (bind mount) + /unifi (anonymous volume)
ace.jar restore requires MongoDB running but NOT the UniFi Java process — yet the Spring context still collides
UniFi 10.x API requires CSRF token + session cookie; NoSiteContext errors even with valid login
mongosh replaces mongo on MongoDB 5+ — different binary, same port
Always verify port ownership (Caddy on 443, UniFi on 8443) before deployment