We have a number of Ubiquiti devices that we wanted to test that do not have the UniFi controller built in. The options were to use Ubiquiti’s hosted controller, run a self-hosted controller, or get a Ubiquiti CloudKey+ Gen2/ Cloud Key Gen2 Plus/ UCK-G2-SSD. Since we have a lot of units going through the test environment, we thought, “Why not just get a Cloud Key so that it would be easy to see the physical networks we were using for testing?” So we purchased one that we just wanted to do a quick overview of. This will be a bit different, as it is more of a controller box with a 1TB SSD rather than a switch or gateway.
As a bit of context for some folks, if you are completely lost on what this device is, it is likely because you have mostly used locally managed or fully cloud-managed devices. Ubiquiti’s management software can run on a dedicated device like this in an local network. So instead of logging into a switch, then an AP, then a NVR system, and managing each directly, everything can be managed through the UniFi controller software running on this CloudKey.
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Ubiquiti Cloudkey Gen2 Plus UCK-G2-SSD Hardware Overview
The box itself is small, at 131.2×27.1×134.2 mm or 5.2×1.1×5.3 in.
On the front, there is a little status display and a status LED.
The other side has the SSD tray.
Inside, there was a 1TB 2.5″ SATA SSD.
On the top, there is metal.
On the side, there is a Kensington security slot. That actually makes a lot of sense for a device like this. If you think about this being the controller for a network and a few security cameras at a small business, then sometimes it is nice to lock the IT equipment up.
Here is the other side.
The bottom is not just a simple metal face.
Instead, there is the Cloudkey Rack Link and the SSD release latch.
On the rear, we get a plastic face with most of the connectivity.
There is a USB Type-C port.
On the left rear, we get a power button, a USB-C power input, a microSD card slot, and a 1GbE port with PoE in. This device did not come with a power adapter, so it is expected that you just use a PoE input for the power and data connection. If you do not have a PoE switch or injector, you can use a USB Type-C power adapter.
Next, let us quickly get to the management.
