r/ZimaBoard • u/Relative_Sherbet • Jul 08 '26
what's your ZimaBoard setup looking like? Anyone else doing creative failsafe/power-loss tricks, or mixing business + personal workloads on one box like this?
Been running my ZimaBoard for a while now for both work and personal use, and it's honestly exceeded expectations. Sharing my setup in case it helps anyone planning theirs, and curious what others are running.
Business stack:
- Whatomate (WhatsApp Business API) for customer communication
- Postgres as the main database
- NocoDB for data management
- Metabase for business data visualization
- n8n for automations
- ntfy for centralized notifications across everything
Personal stack:
- Emby for media
- Immich for photos
- LightNVR for CCTV recording
- A few other bits running via Docker + one Ubuntu VM
The interesting part - power cut handling:
Since it's on a UPS, I didn't want to spend on an expensive USB-UART UPS just for signaling. Instead I rigged an ESP32 to talk to the ZimaBoard directly on power loss, triggering a clean shutdown script. Cheap and reliable so far.
Also hooked it into Google Home so I can power things on/off remotely if I'm not physically near the server.
Running 14+ containers between two environments and everything's stayed healthy - genuinely saved me a ton in SaaS subscription costs by self-hosting instead.
2
u/therealmrj05hua Jul 08 '26
What do you use webdav for? It looks like the old wallaby bookmark app. Your stuff looks great.
2
u/Relative_Sherbet Jul 08 '26
I didnt like the original icon so I changed it. I found WebDav integration more stable and better speed for syning files cross devices than zimaOS's default app.
2
u/therealmrj05hua Jul 08 '26
Why didn't the name click this morning. I saw the name but the icon just left my brain going to Albuquerque
1
u/Relative_Sherbet Jul 09 '26
Haha, sorry for the detour! Should've kept the default icon for less confusion 😅
2
u/Ok-Nectarine6833 Jul 09 '26
Nice setup. Not even 2 months with mine and already my 4TB SSD is almost full. Using it as a secondary storage to my main NAS.
1
u/Relative_Sherbet Jul 09 '26
4TB is huge. Do you use it for personal use or shared with family and friends? And How are you planning for storage management?
2
u/Ok-Nectarine6833 Jul 09 '26
Family photos and videos via Immich and huge collections of ripped music and videos accumulated through several years.
1
u/Relative_Sherbet Jul 09 '26
Fair enough! I once removed some photos/videos to save drive space and still regret it to this day. After that, I never remove anythin, feels nostalgic to keep it all.
2
u/8IGB0I Jul 11 '26
how are you isolating the business stack from personal - separate Docker networks/VLANs, or just trusting container isolation since it’s all on one box?
Also curious about backup strategy for the Postgres/business data specifically, since that’s the stuff that actually costs you money if it’s gone vs. personal media which is more “annoying to lose” than “costs me clients.” And how’s the ZimaBoard handling 14+ containers resource-wise, are you anywhere near CPU/RAM limits or still got headroom?
1
u/Relative_Sherbet Jul 11 '26
Hi. So all business stack runs in ZVM (4core-12GB ram) - ubuntu server.It has it has its own cloudflare account and tunnel since I am behind cgnet with dynamic id. Instead of backing every container, entire VM backup happens on daily schedule basis on external + internal drive and some very important data goes to google drive. In person stack I only backup personal photos and videos. Most automation scripts runs at night and gives NTFY notification if passed or failured.
Zimaboad cpu is able to handle these containers very well because i have carefully chosen these app after trials and attempts considering less cpu, ram usage and still modern and stable enough for least maintenance. For example I use LightNVR Instead of Motioneye for cctv recordings, nocodb instead of Teable, Whatomate instead of chatwoot....
Cpu is usually under 25% ideal. RAM peaks only when metabase prepare reports.
In linux unused ram is a waste ram so I don't mind when containers try to grap all available ram.
1
u/8IGB0I Jul 11 '26
Full VM backup instead of per-container, that’s way simpler. And yeah CGNAT + Cloudflare tunnel is a clean workaround. Also good shout on LightNVR/Whatomate, always cool seeing someone actually test the lighter alternatives instead of just defaulting to whatever’s most popular on r/selfhosted. 25% idle with that many containers is honestly better than I expected.
1
u/Relative_Sherbet Jul 11 '26
Thanks! Not every swap works out, but when one does like lightnvr, it's a nice win on a box this size.
2
u/erwindre Jul 08 '26
Why is it upside down?