[HN Gopher] All-New Next Gen of UniFi Storage
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       All-New Next Gen of UniFi Storage
        
       Author : ycombinete
       Score  : 34 points
       Date   : 2025-10-08 10:05 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.ui.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.ui.com)
        
       | system2 wrote:
       | I'm surprised they don't have their own Synology C2-type backup
       | service. Instead, they list AWS S3, Backblaze B2, and Wasabi as
       | back-end integrations.
       | 
       | We use Synology with VMware ESXi backups, and it's a lifesaver.
       | Unless they add VM support, I wouldn't consider UI. I also wonder
       | what their backup-restore timeline/search looks like.
       | 
       | EDIT: You know what grinds my gears on HN? Getting downvoted for
       | a basic observation and never knowing what I said that sounded
       | wrong to others.
        
         | crmd wrote:
         | It could be because storage data plane development is a complex
         | and niche software engineering domain, and cloud storage itself
         | is not a high margin business.
        
       | amluto wrote:
       | I know nothing about this particular product, but I would not buy
       | anything from UniFi where you will be sad if it becomes
       | essentially useless for any remotely nontrivial use case.
       | 
       | In recent days, I've encountered at least the following issues:
       | 
       | - Removing a fixed DHCP address from a device that is no present
       | requires switching to the old UI.
       | 
       | - Gateway network traffic by client is flat-out broken.
       | 
       | - My particular combination of hardware does not support UniFi's
       | speedtest. Dunno why. They don't care.
       | 
       | - Doing almost anything temporarily disruptive to the network
       | resuts in long-lasting disruption as the controller re-adopts
       | everything.
       | 
       | - Per-port switch settings are janky. They often result in the
       | settings page and the actual applied settings not being in sync.
       | And sometimes the port I want to configure is missing.
       | (Seriously, the ports will be in numeric order except one is
       | skipped. So maybe I have port 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Traffic is
       | passing on port 4 just fine, but there is no port 4 as far as the
       | UI is concerned.
       | 
       | - Network ACLs are a serious mess and often simply don't work,
       | although I admit it's been a little while since I've re-tested
       | this issue. (The ones above are all things I've encountered very
       | recently.)
       | 
       | I'm sure I'm forgetting something. UniFi is... sort of featureful
       | but not actually impressive.
        
         | pharos92 wrote:
         | 90% of the product effort goes into out-appleing apple on their
         | website
        
           | Andrex wrote:
           | If that's the goal I think they succeeded, I could barely
           | browse it on my old laptop.
        
         | q3k wrote:
         | Also add to this that they tend to randomly (soft-)EOL
         | products. I've already been bitten by this twice (first by
         | their early CCTV systems, then by their EdgeRouter series of
         | devices).
         | 
         | Don't buy Ubnt unless you're ready to replace it by something
         | else when things go wrong.
        
           | InTheArena wrote:
           | The Edge Router line has been what, 5 years old since any
           | major update? But these are still being supported. The CCTV
           | stuff was replaced, again 5+ years ago, but I have been using
           | Unifi switches, and Unifi protect for ~10 years now, and have
           | not had a problem. Unifi Protect also supports ONVF now,
           | which means it supports third party cameras, which was part
           | of the reason people didn't like protect originally.
        
             | kuschku wrote:
             | > The Edge Router line has been what, 5 years old since any
             | major update?
             | 
             | Where's the replacement for those anyway? From what I can
             | tell, the new unifi routers don't even officially support
             | SSH or Serial login, nor do they support the typical
             | configure/commit/abort procedure, nor do they officially
             | support loading/backup up config files, nor running custom
             | cronjobs (which I need as German ISPs require even on FTTH
             | a 24h reconnect, and if you don't schedule one, they'll
             | schedule one for you)
        
         | tills13 wrote:
         | I mean it's a case of use the right tool for the job.
         | 
         | For consumer, it's overkill. For pro-sumer, it's perfect, imo.
         | You can start pushing the boundaries, here, but most will not
         | for residential. If you are pushing the boundaries, you are
         | probably savvy enough to roll your own solution or get into the
         | actual, hard-core enterprise stuff. For small businesses, it's
         | similar to pro-sumer. For enterprise, use something else. But
         | honestly, you could make it work for any of these, 99% of the
         | time.
         | 
         | I fall squarely into pro-sumer and my setup has been flawless
         | for me. It's got all the bells and whistles I could ever need
         | while not being too overkill nor really that expensive in the
         | grand scheme of things. I am planning on switching over from
         | Synology to a UNAS for the integration with Identity.
         | 
         | It sounds like you are the exception for pro-sumer.
        
           | iosjunkie wrote:
           | Agreed 100%. Perfect prosumer / small business setup.
        
           | phil21 wrote:
           | Unifi is what you swap over to once your time becomes more
           | scarce and money more plentiful. At least in all the cases of
           | my peer group.
           | 
           | It's far less customizable, and can be maddening sometimes if
           | it doesn't Just Work(tm) - debugging it can be a giant pain.
           | You will also be paying the Ubiquiti tax.
           | 
           | I simply redesigned my overly complex home network to be much
           | more boring, and am okay with that. I don't want to tinker
           | with my home IT stuff much these days - I want it to just
           | work, and changes to be easy.
           | 
           | I've found Unifi Network and Unifi Protect to have come a
           | long way in the past 3-4 years. They still drop hardware duds
           | and software bugs here and there, but overall it's been a
           | rather decent experience for the most part. I understand all
           | the core level technology and configuration bits, but I
           | simply do not have the desire to ssh into switches or
           | whatever to configure a new port these days. Then open source
           | NVR story is also just horrible even today.
           | 
           | It's also great for remote installs for other non-technical
           | people/orgs I help out with. One dashboard I can just click
           | on and go take a look to figure out whatever problem they may
           | be having. And a new setup takes hours vs. days.
        
         | InTheArena wrote:
         | 1)It's been forever since I have used the legacy interface, so
         | I google'd it it went away in 7.3, which was 2+ years ago, so
         | it seems you may be on a very very old version of Unifi US. I'm
         | running 9.5.18, and I can confirm that option no longer exists
         | (or is needed) 1) Also on the current version, to remove a DHCP
         | client you can click on Client Devices / DHCP, and remove
         | there. I just tested that as well. 2) Gateway traffic by
         | individual client, ip, zone, etc works fine, in my experience,
         | but I am also using Policy Engines, which I don't believe is
         | supported on the version you are using. Policy engines can
         | apply QoS, security, or routing to any object - ip, subnet, any
         | sort of logical grouping. 3) I agree that it used to have a lot
         | of problems with re-adopting, but it's been a while since I
         | have seen that - the only time I ever see a re-adopting screen
         | is after a OS re-install. 4) Network ACLs where replaced with
         | policy again, but again, that's pretty new - you may be running
         | a old version.
        
           | Macha wrote:
           | The legacy UI settings are available in Network > System >
           | Interface in my UDM SE running Unifi Network 9.4.x
        
         | rcdemski wrote:
         | I don't know answers to all of yours but the couple I do
         | know...
         | 
         | - The fixed DHCP addresses are found under Client Devices.
         | Click the Globe icon above the search box (To the right of the
         | binoculars) to get the DHCP blade. All fixed reservations are
         | listed, even for offline devices.
         | 
         | -For ACLs I've had great success with their new object based
         | model that I believe came in Network 9.3. Settings > Policy
         | Engine > Objects
         | 
         | I'm curious which devices you're using for both the gateway and
         | switching equipment.
        
       | Hamuko wrote:
       | Might be an appealing product if I just needed networked mass
       | storage, but my home NAS (Synology DS920+) is also a home server,
       | running a bunch of applications. I imagine Ubiquiti isn't going
       | to start making servers anytime soon either.
        
         | esseph wrote:
         | They did not, but MikroTik has...
         | 
         | https://mikrotik.com/product/rds2216
        
       | InTheArena wrote:
       | Just a few words of caution - this doesn't directly compete with
       | synoplogy. It's literally just a NAS box. That said, it's a NAS
       | box at a awesome price / performance / capability point _if_ and
       | only _if_ you are already in the Unifi namespace.
       | 
       | I would say you are almost always better buying this + a mini-pc
       | then a synology at this point, or a Ugreen NAS + TrueNAS if you
       | want to do amost everything a synology can do.
        
         | zbowling wrote:
         | synology doens't even compete with synology anymore because all
         | the new hardware requires locked in synology drives now.
         | 
         | It's creating a void that is getting filled with Ugreen,
         | Minisforum, beelink, Aoostor for invoative platforms from China
         | and classic competitors like Qnap, Asustor, Teramaster, etc for
         | innovation for the small to mid-tier needs. 45drives in the
         | larger spaces for folks wanting to manage things more on their
         | own but have enterprise scale needs. Dell and HP have always
         | competed on the high-end enterprise space and also becoming a
         | better option, even though synology is so easy as an appliance.
        
           | rpcope1 wrote:
           | Didn't Synology just walk back the whole "first party drives
           | only" thing?
        
       | psyclobe wrote:
       | I love unfi system for my home lab it's feature rich and just
       | constantly getting better
        
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       (page generated 2025-10-11 23:00 UTC)