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Installation

Prerequisites​

Certificate​

Generate a certificate by performing one of the following:

  1. If you have a UniFi camera:

    scp ubnt@<your-unifi-cam>:/var/etc/persistent/server.pem client.pem

  2. Create your own client certificate via:

    openssl ecparam -out /tmp/private.key -name prime256v1 -genkey -noout
    openssl req -new -sha256 -key /tmp/private.key -out /tmp/server.csr -subj "/C=TW/L=Taipei/O=Ubiquiti Networks Inc./OU=devint/CN=camera.ubnt.dev/emailAddress=support@ubnt.com"
    openssl x509 -req -sha256 -days 36500 -in /tmp/server.csr -signkey /tmp/private.key -out /tmp/public.key
    cat /tmp/private.key /tmp/public.key > client.pem
    rm -f /tmp/private.key /tmp/public.key /tmp/server.csr

Adoption Token​

In order to add a camera to Protect, you must first generate an adoption token. The token is only valid for 60 minutes. You will need to re-generate a new one if it expires during your initial setup.

Open https://{NVR IP}/proxy/protect/api/cameras/manage-payload and copy the token field.

Docker​

Using Docker is the recommended installation method. The sample docker-compose file below is the recommended deployment for most users. Note, the generated certificate must be in the same directory as the docker-compose.yaml file.

example using the default h.264 codec​

version: "3.9"
services:
  unifi-cam-proxy:
    restart: unless-stopped
    build: https://github.com/technonene/unifi-cam-proxy.git
    volumes:
      - "./client.pem:/client.pem"
    command: unifi-cam-proxy --host {NVR IP} --cert /client.pem --token {Adoption token} rtsp -s rtsp://192.168.201.15:8554/cam'

example using the h.265/HEVC codec​

version: "3.9"
services:
  unifi-cam-proxy:
    restart: unless-stopped
    build: https://github.com/technonene/unifi-cam-proxy.git
    volumes:
      - "./client.pem:/client.pem"
    command: unifi-cam-proxy --host {NVR IP} --cert /client.pem --token {Adoption token} --video-codec h265 rtsp -s rtsp://192.168.201.15:8554/cam'

Multiple cameras​

To use multiple cameras, start an instance of the proxy for each, with a unique MAC address argument. Using docker-compose, your setup might look like the following:

Note: This conforms to MAC randomization rules, so should not cause issues with real devices. See here for more details: https://www.mist.com/get-to-know-mac-address-randomization-in-2020/

example using the default h.264 codec​

version: "3.5"
services:
  proxy-1:
    restart: unless-stopped
    build: https://github.com/technonene/unifi-cam-proxy.git
    volumes:
      - "./client.pem:/client.pem"
    command: >-
        unifi-cam-proxy
        --host {NVR IP}
        --mac 'AA:BB:CC:00:11:22'
        --cert /client.pem
        --token {Adoption token}
        rtsp -s rtsp://192.168.201.15:8554/cam
  proxy-2:
    restart: unless-stopped
    build: https://github.com/technonene/unifi-cam-proxy.git
    volumes:
      - "./client.pem:/client.pem"
    command: >-
        unifi-cam-proxy
        --host {NVR IP}
        --mac 'AA:BB:CC:33:44:55'
        --cert /client.pem
        --token {Adoption token}
        rtsp -s rtsp://192.168.201.15:8554/cam

example using the h.265/HEVC codec​

version: "3.5"
services:
  proxy-1:
    restart: unless-stopped
    build: https://github.com/technonene/unifi-cam-proxy.git
    volumes:
      - "./client.pem:/client.pem"
    command: >-
        unifi-cam-proxy
        --host {NVR IP}
        --mac 'AA:BB:CC:00:11:22'
        --cert /client.pem
        --token {Adoption token}
        --video-codec h265
        rtsp -s rtsp://192.168.201.15:8554/cam
  proxy-2:
    restart: unless-stopped
    build: https://github.com/technonene/unifi-cam-proxy.git
    volumes:
      - "./client.pem:/client.pem"
    command: >-
        unifi-cam-proxy
        --host {NVR IP}
        --mac 'AA:BB:CC:33:44:55'
        --cert /client.pem
        --token {Adoption token}
        --video-codec h265
        rtsp -s rtsp://192.168.201.15:8554/cam

Bare Metal​

If you cannot use Docker, you can try to install the proxy on most Linux distros, but support is not guaranteed and may not be given by me. Find instructions for your distro below:

Ubuntu/Debian​

apt install ffmpeg netcat python3 python3-pip
pip3 install unifi-cam-proxy
unifi-cam-proxy --host {NVR IP} --cert /client.pem --token {Adoption token} rtsp -s rtsp://192.168.201.15:8554/cam'