Unifi controller as service

Steps – How to Run the Controller as a Windows Service

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1. Close any instances of the UniFi software on the computer. If you just installed the UniFi controller, make sure to open it once by using the icon on the desktop or within the start menu. Once it says “UniFi Controller (a.b.c) started.” you can close the controller program. This is needed to generate some required files for the service to work.
2. Open the command prompt as an Administrator. For example, on Windows 10, right click on the Start Menu and choose “Command Prompt (Admin)”.
3. Change directory to the location of UniFi in your computer using the following command (exactly as it is here, no substituting needed):
cd “%UserProfile%\Ubiquiti UniFi\”
4. Once in the root of the UniFi folder, issue the following (this installs the UniFi Controller service):
java -jar lib\ace.jar installsvc
5. Once you’re at a new command prompt line, after it says “Complete Installation…”, issue the following:
java -jar lib\ace.jar startsvc
6. Close the command prompt window either by entering the “exit” command, or clicking the X.
7. There is no longer a controller applet, like that other window that popped up. To access the controller you need to open your browser and go to https://localhost:8443. Alternatively you can use the desired interface IP, or FQDN that is mapped to that host (in place of “localhost”).
Note: You will need to use Oracle Java JRE 8, which you can download HERE. For the UniFi cloud service (unifi.ubnt.com) to work properly you need to use x64 Java only (so choose Windows x64 Offline).

When upgrading the service, first perform step 2 and 3, then run “java -jar lib\ace.jar stopsvc” (without quotes) to stop the old the service. After the update is complete, run “java -jar lib\ace.jar startsvc” (without quotes) to start the service for the updated controller instance.