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UniFi Security Gateway: Add an additional public IP with NAT

The UniFi Controller has no UI configuration to assign an additional IP for the UniFi Security Gateway (USG). Hopefully this will be added from Ubiquiti in the future.

Date: 25.12.2017
Controller Version: 5.6.26
Firmware: 4.4.12.5032482

 

After many hours of reading, try and error I was able to solve this task. This guide is focused on people with network basics, therefore I will not cover technically explanations.

UPDATE:  Important, set only the values for the second IP inside config.gateway.json the settings like Port Forwarding for the first IP have to configured on the webinterface.

Attention: After following this guide you will see the first IP inside the USG Overview/Details pane and the second IP inside the Config pane in the webinterface. This looks like a bug UniFi Controller which can be ignored.

Goal:

NAT Public IP 10.0.0.2 on Port 80/TCP to internal server 192.168.0.2 on Port 8080/TCP.

Solution:

Overview:

  1. Test if the Port is closed
  2. Add the additional IP to the gateway
  3. Create a DNAT rule from WAN to LAN
  4. Create a SNAT rule from LAN to WAN
  5. Create a Firewall rule to allow traffic from WAN to LAN
  6. Apply changes
  7. Test if the Port is now open

NOTE: You can also add this with CLI commands but it will not persist after changes made from the Web-Interface.

Step 1

Test with NMAP from WAN/Internet

nmap -n -Pn -p 80 10.0.0.2

If this Port is open you should check your network setup because something is responding to 80/TCP and the next steps will potentially lead to undesired results.

Step 2-4

We need to create or append config.gateway.json inside the UniFi Controller. Place this file inside the site configuration, e.g. for the default page but the file inside “data/sites/default”

Content of config.gateway.json:

{
    "interfaces": {
        "ethernet": {
            "eth0": {
                "address": [
                    "10.0.0.1/29",
                    "10.0.0.2/29"
                ],
                "firewall": {
                    "in": {
                        "name": "WAN_IN"
                    },   
                    "local": {
                        "name": "WAN_LOCAL"
                    },   
                    "out": {
                        "name": "WAN_OUT"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "service": {
        "nat": {
            "rule": {
                "3000": {
                    "description": "DNAT 10.0.0.2 TCP/8080 to 192.168.0.2",
                    "destination": {
                        "address": "10.0.0.2",
                        "port": "80"
                    },   
                    "inbound-interface": "eth0",
                    "inside-address": {
                        "address": "192.168.0.2",
                        "port": "8080"
                    },   
                    "log": "enable",
                    "protocol": "tcp",
                    "type": "destination"
                },
                "5000": {
                    "description": "SNAT 192.168.0.2 TCP/8080 to 10.0.0.2",
                    "log": "enable",
                    "outbound-interface": "eth0",
                    "outside-address": {
                        "address": "10.0.0.2",
                        "port": "80"
                    },   
                    "protocol": "tcp",
                    "source": {
                        "address": "192.168.0.2",
                        "port": "8080"
                    },   
                    "type": "source"
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "firewall": {
        "name": {
            "WAN_IN": {
                "default-action": "drop",
                "rule": {
                    "1000": {
                        "action": "accept",
                        "description": "NAT 10.0.0.2 TCP/8080 to 192.168.0.2",
                        "destination": {
                            "address": "192.168.0.2",
                            "port": "8080"
                        },
                        "log": "enable",
                        "protocol": "tcp"
                    },   
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Step 5

Now it’s time to apply these rules to the USG. To do this log in to your UniFi Controller and force provisioning

Step 6

Test with NMAP from WAN/Internet

nmap -n -Pn -p 80 10.0.0.2

3 thoughts on “UniFi Security Gateway: Add an additional public IP with NAT”

  1. Hi,

    can u help me out, what if a got two NAS Server in the background and I can reach each with a separate public IP, but when I configure ddns at the NAS, just on will work and the 2nd will route me if I am inside the lan always to the gateway? best

    PS: Great Post!

    1. We solved this problem yesterday in a remote session. The additional notes where added to the article.

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