unifi-api

A rewrite of https://github.com/unifi-hackers/unifi-lab in cleaner Python.

Install

sudo pip install -U unifi

Utilities

The following small utilities are bundled with the API:

unifi-ls-clients

Lists the currently active clients on the networks. Takes parameters for controller, username, password, controller version and site ID (UniFi >= 3.x)

jb@unifi:~ % unifi-ls-clients -c localhost -u admin -p p4ssw0rd -v v3 -s default
NAME                             MAC  AP            CHAN  RSSI   RX   TX
client-kitchen     00:24:36:9a:0d:ab  Study          100    51  300  216
jborg-mbp          28:cf:da:d6:46:20  Study          100    45  300  300
jb-iphone          48:60:bc:44:36:a4  Living Room      1    45   65   65
jb-ipad            1c:ab:a7:af:05:65  Living Room      1    22   52   65

unifi-low-snr-reconnect

Periodically checks all clients for low SNR values, and disconnects those who fall below the limit. The point being that these clients will then try to reassociate, hopefully finding a closer AP. Take the same parameters as above, plus settings for intervals and SNR threshold. Use unifi-low-snr-reconnect -h for an option summary.

A good source of understanding for RSSI/SNR values is this article. According to that, an SNR of 15 dB seems like a good cutoff, and that's also the default value in the script. You can set a higher value for testing:

jb@unifi:~ % unifi-low-snr-reconnect -c localhost -u admin -p p4ssw0rd -v v3 -s default --minsnr 30
2012-11-15 11:23:01 INFO unifi-low-snr-reconnect: Disconnecting jb-ipad/1c:ab:a7:af:05:65@Study (SNR 22 dB < 30 dB)
2012-11-15 11:23:01 INFO unifi-low-snr-reconnect: Disconnecting Annas-Iphone/74:e2:f5:97:da:7e@Living Room (SNR 29 dB < 30 dB)

For production use, launching the script into the background is recommended...

API Example

from unifi.controller import Controller
c = Controller('192.168.1.99', 'admin', 'p4ssw0rd')
for ap in c.get_aps():
	print 'AP named %s with MAC %s' % (ap['name'], ap['mac'])

See also the scripts unifi-ls-clients and unifi-low-rssi-reconnect for more examples of how to use the API.

UniFi v3 Compatibility and Migration

With the release of v3, UniFi gained multisite support which requires some changes on how to interract with the API . Currently we assume v2 to be the default, thus: Updating the API WON'T BREAK existing code using this API.

Though, for continued v2 usage we recommend you start explicitely instanciating your controller in v2 mode for the day the default assumption starts to be v3 or newer:

c = Controller('192.168.1.99', 'admin', 'p4ssw0rd', 'v2')

With UniFi v3, connecting to the first (default) site, is as easy as instanciating a controller in v3 mode:

c = Controller('192.168.1.99', 'admin', 'p4ssw0rd', 'v3')

Connecting to a site other than default requires indication of both version and the site ID:

c = Controller('192.168.1.99', 'admin', 'p4ssw0rd', 'v3', 'myothersite')

You can find about the site ID by selecting the site in the UniFi web interface, i.e. "My other site". Then you can find ia its URL (https://localhost:8443/manage/s/foobar) that the site ID is myothersite.

API

class Controller

Interact with a UniFi controller.

Uses the JSON interface on port 8443 (HTTPS) to communicate with a UniFi controller. Operations will raise unifi.controller.APIError on obvious problems (such as login failure), but many errors (such as disconnecting a nonexistant client) will go unreported.

__init__(self, host, username, password)

Create a Controller object.

• host -- the address of the controller host; IP or name
• username -- the username to log in with
• password -- the password to log in with

block_client(self, mac)

Add a client to the block list.

• mac -- the MAC address of the client to block.

disconnect_client(self, mac)

Disconnects a client, forcing them to reassociate. Useful when the connection is of bad quality to force a rescan.

• mac -- the MAC address of the client to disconnect.

get_aps(self)

Return a list of all AP:s, with significant information about each.

get_clients(self)

Return a list of all active clients, with significant information about each.

get_wlan_conf(self)

Return a list of configured WLANs with their configuration parameters.

restart_ap(self, mac)

Restart an access point (by MAC).

• mac -- the MAC address of the AP to restart.

restart_ap_name(self, name)

Restart an access point (by name).

• name -- the name address of the AP to restart.

unblock_client(self, mac)

Remove a client from the block list.

• mac -- the MAC address of the client to unblock.

create_backup(self)

Tells the controller to create a backup archive that can be downloaded with download_backup() and then be used to restore a controller on another machine.

Remember that this puts significant load on a controller for some time (depending on the amount of users and managed APs).

get_backup(self, targetfile)

Tells the controller to create a backup archive and downloads it to a file. It should have a .unf extension for later restore.

• targetfile -- the target file name, you can also use a full path. Default creates unifi-backup.unf in the current directoy.

License

MIT