The USW Flex Mini is Ubiquiti's most cost-effective switch, with 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports. It can be powered by 802.3af PoE In, or the included USB C with a power adaptor. The Flex Mini doesn't support SSH, so the manual set-inform method will not work with it.

Getting the USW Flex Mini adopted to HostiFi or any other cloud hosted UniFi Controller requires a few more steps. There are two ways we can do this.

Contents

Adopting to Local Controller (Recommended)

DHCP Option 43

One of the easiest ways to get the USW Flex Mini adopted to HostiFi or another cloud hosted UniFi Controller is to spin up a local instance of the UniFi Controller, on your Mac or PC. From there we can adopt it, then migrate it to our new UniFi Controller.

Follow our guide here on how to install UniFi on Windows and macOS

First, make sure the switch is connected to Network and powered. It is important to ensure the USW Flex Mini is factory reset, with a white LED showing.

First, use the Legacy UI for your local UniFi controller - see our guide here on how to change between UniFi UI versions

Next, go to Settings

Next, go to 'Network Application'

Ensure that 'Make this Network application discoverable on the Layer 2 network.' is ticked

Next, click on the 'Devices' tab

Under the devices tab, the USW Flex Mini will come up as 'Pending Adoption'

Note: If the Flex Mini doesn't show up as a device pending adoption, double check the network and firewall settings of your local controller. Windows firewall or other security settings may be blocking the network traffic.

After adopting it into your local UniFi controller, you can migrate the site to HostiFi and move the devices to specific sites for a site migration you can follow this guide we have made.

Another option is to use DHCP option 43 to provide the public IP address of your UniFi controller in DHCP leases. This method doesn't require a local UniFi controller, but it does require a network with the ability to provide DHCP option 43.

DHCP option 43 is available on any most third party routers such as pfSense, Mikrotik, Palo Alto, as well as Windows DHCP servers. Refer to those manufacturer's instructions on how to enable option 43. Typically, they require the public IP address of your controller to be input in hex format, and prefaced with "0104" followed by the hex value of the IP address. Refer to this Ubiquiti Community thread for more details on using 3rd party DHCP servers.

If you use a UniFi gateway (USG, UXG-Pro, etc.), follow the instructions below.

First, make sure the switch is connected to Network and powered. It is important to ensure the USW Flex Mini is factory reset, with a white LED showing.

First, log into the UniFi Controller you wish to add the USW Flex mini to, then click on Settings

Next, click on 'Networks'

Click Edit on the LAN network you are going to connect the Flex Mini to

Enter in the IP address for your UniFi Controller. If you don't know the IP, this can be found in your dashboard at app.hostifi.com

Once those settings have been applied, go back to the Devices tab and the UniFi Flex Mini will show as Pending adoption.

Once adopted, the Flex Mini will come online in around 2-3 mins.

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.