Unifi docker upgrade
This post is mostly a note to self for when I need to upgrade next time.
Because of the recent bug in log4j, which also affected the Unifi controller, I decided to finally upgrade the controller software.
Some background: There a few different ways to run the controller. You can use “the cloud”, run it yourself on some PC or raspberry pi, or you can buy their appliance.
I run it myself, because I already have a raspberry pi 4 running, which is cheaper than the appliance, and gives me control of my data and works during an ISP outage.
I thought it’d be a good opportunity to play with docker, too.
How to upgrade
Turns out I’d saved the command I used to create the original docker image. Good thing too, because it seems that upgrading is basically delete the old, install the new.
- Take a backup from the UI.
- Stop the old instance (
docker stop <old-name-here>). - Take a backup of the state directory.
- Make sure the old instance doesn’t restart
(
docker update --restart=no <old-name-here>). - Create a new instance with the same state directory.
- Wait a long time (at least on Raspberry Pi), like Continue reading


