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HostiFi - How we handle UniFi updates

HostiFi's testing and release process for the UniFi Network Application

Alex Lowe avatar
Written by Alex Lowe
Updated over a week ago

At HostiFi, we take care of all Linux and UniFi updates for our customers. 

This is one of the biggest values that we can provide as part of our service, which involves testing UniFi updates and firmware versions in order to shield our customers from buggy releases. We have a long history of successful updates going back to August 2018 with UniFi Network version 5.8.28. We have avoided many problems for our customers since then because of our thorough testing process.

This article describes our testing and release process. Our time frame for a "good" update to be pushed out is 2-3 weeks after a new release is marked as stable/official, but that varies depending the results of our testing phase.

If we find any major problems during testing, we will skip the release entirely and wait for a new official release, then begin our testing process again.

Recommended System Requirements

All of our servers follow Ubiquiti's recommended system requirements for UniFi, putting us in the best position to avoid bugs.

Release Tracks

We typically keep all of our customers on the latest official releases, but update only after extensive internal testing.

Ubiquiti has 3 release tracks for UniFi:

  • Official (Stable)

  • Release Candidate (RC)

  • Beta/Early Access (EA)

You may also notice on the Ubiquiti forums that Release Candidate or "RC" versions of UniFi will be posted. These are versions that are suggested to become official, but have not been confirmed as official releases yet.

How Official Releases Work

Usually, a release will start off as a Release Candidate, and then be promoted to official/stable release in the same forum thread.

Once promoted to an official release, all UniFi Controllers begin receiving the notice that a new update is available, and alerts you when you log in. You can disable these alerts in the old user interface, by clicking on the down arrow and then "Disable these alerts"*

*Applicable to the Legacy UI only

HostiFi Testing Phase

When a new official release comes out, we will begin testing internally on a handful of our test servers.

Some customers will need the version right away, usually because they have a backup or Cloud Key from a newer version, and they are unable to import it to their HostiFi server due to the version mismatch. In this instance, we can upgrade a server manually, or it can be done in the app.hostifi.com portal.

HostiFi Release

If testing goes well for us, and we check the forums and there are not any major problems being reported by other users, we will push the new official release out to all of our servers. The entire process, from when an RC is promoted to official, until we push out the update to our customers, is usually 2-3 weeks if things go smoothly.

Manual upgrades via app.hostifi.com

Recently, we added the ability for customers to manually update UniFi servers from the app.hostifi.com portal, you can choose which version to upgrade to and even schedule it too.

If HostiFi Determines an "Official" Release to be Buggy

Occasionally, we will find a major issue in an official release and decide to skip it. Most recently, this happened with version 7.5.174 which had some issues relating to WiFi networks not being broadcast. Our dev team works hard to ensure that new UniFi Network releases are thoroughly tested before being made available to customers.

Device Firmware Upgrades

We don't push device firmware upgrades to our customers, however, you are able to schedule automatic firmware upgrades within UniFi under Settings > Services > Scheduled Upgrades. The schedules can be configured per-site and even per-device.

Buggy Firmware Releases and Workarounds

With hundreds of thousands of Ubiquiti devices connected to our servers, we are quickly alerted by our customers of any firmware bugs that are discovered. We are usually able to test internally and find solutions - typically by downgrading to a "known good" version or finding a workaround. If you run into any bugs, let us know and we'll do our best to help you out.

HostiFi

HostiFi provides hosting for Ubiquiti hardware and software, with servers for UniFi and UISP as well as professional network services with HostiFi Pro.

If you run into any issues, send an email to support@hostifi.com or contact us via live chat.

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