Need setup help

[bawats01]

i am in need of help setting up my new zimaos on a terramaster. it is up and running with no issues. it is installed on an internal ssd drive not a usb boot drive. i am a bit overwhelmed about what to do next. i will try to be concise in describing my needs and history. I initially decided on a NAS sytem to be able to share photos with family. I’d like to also be able to display photos/videos on tv. I have since decided that i would like to use this for my business as well, and this is where my issue really begins. I want employees to be able to share job notes from the field with me easily and quickly. I think the setup i want is (i am also open to suggestions here) tailscale with nextcloud and siyuan note for the business (i will probably work on some kanban stuff too) and immich for personal and business. in the field a mix of devices will be used. android, ios, windows on a laptop. My office and home pc is windows. there may be a future macbook.

Other notes: i am currently using onenote. I do not like it. I have had issues with onedrive taking my data, and I prefer to own my data. It really bugs me to create data and feel it is owned by someone else. yes, i am running windows on my pc. i am not unfamiliar with linux. i have had many linux distros over the years beginning with slackware in the 90s then others, suse, redhat, mint, and ubuntu. I currently do not have linux installed. my point being that i am familiar with some of the commands, etc but by no means am i an expert. It has been awhile so i may need to refresh my memory on linux commands if it has to go that way. I have little to no networking experience.

I feel totally lost. I have tailscale setup with my machines, but i don’t know what to do next. every setup procedure i read is written for network engineers and programmers. I have ran into the same issue with nextcloud. it goes straight into technical jargon. Maybe i need something else. if there is someone who wouldn’t mind taking the time to help me get things up and going i would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

[gelbuilding]

Honestly, I would not try to set everything up at once. What you described is very normal when starting with a NAS, but if you try to do Tailscale, Nextcloud, Immich, notes, business sharing, TV playback, kanban, mobile access and backups all in one go, it will get overwhelming very quickly.

My suggestion would be to build it in stages.

1. Get your storage organised first

Before installing more apps, decide where your data will live. For example:

Photos
Business files
Job notes
Backups
Media

This matters because once apps like Nextcloud or Immich start storing data, you want that data mapped to proper storage and not trapped inside a container.

2. Use Tailscale only for private access at first

Since you already have Tailscale working, that is a good start. I would keep things private through Tailscale first instead of exposing anything publicly to the internet. That is much safer while you are learning.

3. Pick one main business tool first

For business notes and field sharing, I would probably start with Nextcloud before adding too many other tools. It can handle file sharing, mobile uploads, users, permissions and basic collaboration.

Once that works properly, then look at notes, kanban or project tools.

4. Use Immich separately for photos

Immich is excellent for photo/video backup and family photo sharing, but I would keep it separate from the business workflow at first. Let it do one job: photo/video management.

5. Do not rush the perfect setup

You do not need to know everything today. The best way is:

Storage first
Remote access second
Nextcloud third
Immich fourth
Extra business apps later

That way, each step can be tested properly before adding more complexity.

If you want, post a screenshot of your ZimaOS storage page and your current App Store/installed apps page. Also let us know how many drives are in the TerraMaster and what you want each drive used for. From there, people here can guide you in a much clearer step-by-step way without throwing network-engineer jargon at you.

Plenty og great info here:
https://community.zimaspace.com/search?q=terramaster

[bawats01]

Thank you, gelbuilding. That is sound advice. I will follow it. Screenshots are below. I haven’t done anything with these apps except explore them a bit. They can all go if need be. I have started a tailscale setup as mentioned, and I played around abit in next cloud trying to figure it out. Set up a group, worked on inviting one person but he didnt receive the email. Thats about it.

Terramaster is 2 bay. I have 2 western digital 6tb drives. I have them configured in a raid5 configuration so there is 6 Terra bytes of space. I have uploaded about 1Tb of personal photos and videos. There are also two 1Tb nvme drives (I believe that was max size for the terramaster). One has zimaos on it and I had moved the file structure App data etc to the other. This file structure does not have to stay in its current configuration. I have no files on there as of yet except the photos and videos which I have another copy of all of those and can comfortably delete anything off of this terramaster at this point.

[bawats01]

Actually it is a raid 1 setup. Here is another image of my drives

I have uninstalled immich, Siyuan note, and obsidian.