Guide to Installing Omada Software Controller on Raspberry Pi 4
This brief post, which can hardly be called comprehensive, is my contribution to installing the Omada software controller on a Raspberry Pi 4. For Dummies. Like me.
The disclaimer is that I've only gotten it running and haven't yet migrated over my settings from the laptop that my main instance currently runs on. I also have almost no idea what I'm doing in Linux and just want things to work.
Here's what worked for me:
- Get a Raspberry Pi and just order it with an SD card pre-loaded with Raspbian. One less thing to deal with.
- Install Docker. You can Google how to install Docker on a Raspberry Pi. Not sure which website I followed but this one seems good. Not that I took the lazy approach of not setting up an account for a non-root user. https://phoenixnap.com/kb/docker-on-raspberry-pi
- Install Portainer. To deal with Docker. https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-portainer/
- Now you'll need to find the software image for the Omada controller and pull it into Docker by using Portainer. Don't get lost in the weeds of trying to use Github for this like I did. Use Portainer's onboard support for Dockerhub and pull down the same image made by the same guy. Two important points:
- By using the containerized version of the software (which is what you're doing with Docker if you're following my steps) you can avoid having to deal with Java versions and Mongo DB. This is a potential pitfall of trying to coordinate all the dependencies yourself. This guy solved that problem with a packaged solution.
- You want to pull the down image using "mbentley/omada-controller:latest-armv7l". You could use other tags but it seems that the version that will run on Raspberry Pi 4 needs to be for the armv7l architecture. Not arm64, etc.
- Now you need to use Portainer to create a Container using the image you just pulled. This is pretty straightforward if you follow the documentation.
- Now you should be able to start the container and it should run. The Omada controller is now running on your Raspberry Pi.
What I need to do next is to learn about volumes and how to store data from the software so, if the Pi shuts down, my network settings don't go with it.
Hope this saves someone a few hours...
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@Collado OK, we need to see if the controller is actually running.
SSH into the PI. Then sudo tpeap status. If the controller is running see if you can access it from a browser running on the pi. If you can, there is probably a firewall port blocking you.
If the controller is not running, then we need to debug that. Go to the data directory, should be in /opt/tplink/EAPController/data/db. Delete file mongod.lock. run sudo tpeap start. see if that does the job.
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@GaryGFL how did you get MongoDB 3.x on Ubuntu Server 20? I've considered just pulling the packages for Ubuntu 16, but didn't really want to get lost in dependency hell and other messes. Did you just use the Ubuntu 16 packages (and if so did you need to do anything else to make it work besides adding the relevant sources entry)?
I think I may be resigned to shoving this on a tiny VM by itself so it can have all its outdated dependencies to itself (and be utterly isolated from the world outside the management VLAN), but I'd like to at least know what I'm getting myself into.
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@JessicaJ there is a 3.6.9 package here https://pkgs.org/download/mongodb-server for ubuntu 18 and 20. I'm not having dependency hell. Running a standalone pi.
can check here http://ge.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/m/mongodb/ as well.
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wasnt able to install in 20.4 ubuntu due to issue with mongodb (Omada need 3.x), it gives hell lot of dependencies issue.
Finally ended up with
-- pi4 running ubunt 18.x
-- mongodb 3.x
-- Latest omada controller for ubuntu
Running from last few weeks, no problem. My pi is just setup as Ubuntu server (headless) which runs Omada controller and cups and is connected to my network via Lan.
No issue whatsoever.
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I managed to get the Omada software controller running on Ubuntu Server 21.10 for Raspberry Pi with just one step: installing the deb package and the dependencies it needed.
$ sudo apt install mongodb-server jsvc
And
$ dpkg -i Omada... .deb
That was it. No issues with installation or starting the server after that.
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I personally do not prefer running docker for any production use so decided to go bare-metal and I was able to install the latest controller this past weekend on the RPI4 (4GB) that I had doing nothing using Ubuntu server 20.04.
The guide I used worked perfectly on arm64 version of the Ubuntu Server 20.04 and I did not have any issue following the guide in this website.
Install Omada Controller on Ubuntu 20.04
NOTE: Instruction has a typo on "sudo apt install curl jvsc", it should be corrected to "sudo apt install curl jsvc" << This is fixed by the blog owner after I informed him/her.
Also I followed "Install from .deb" route in the guide)
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how long have you had it running? I will redo mine using these instructions. I have tried on two different pi3b with two different 32gb se cards. Since I have the app now, I can see when the controller goes offline and I go and reboot it. Hoping that it's something in the process itself and not the hardware. Will report back but wanted to say thanks for sharing that link.
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@Collado I tried this method while waiting for my OC200 order to deliver which I received yesterday. So, RPI4 controller ran around 2-3 days without any issue.
If it helps, I suggest using a proper SD card which in my case always makes a huge difference on overall stability and speed. I have been using "Samsung Pro Plus" sd card which I am pretty satisfied. I also wanted to overclock RPI 4 a bit just to make sure it runs better. Of course you need some kind of cooling for overclocking which I do with a fanless Flirc case. You also have to make sure your power adapter has enough to support RPI.
For overclocking, I used below guide. Good luck
Configure Clockrate
- open configuration file
sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt
- add the following lines at the end of the file.
#overclocking
over_voltage=4
arm_freq=1850
- reboot
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@Collado I have had the controller software running on my Pi4 8GB model since July without any issues so far. I have not done any overclocking or anything on it. Just regular updates using the deb packages TP-Link releases and OS patching. I don't have anything else running on the Pi either.
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