I'm the "tech guy" for my parents' small business, and the new point of sale software for them runs on top of MSSQL on Windows Server.
Step 1: Buy a system with Windows Server 2012 on it. (Check. $900 from Microcenter)
Step 2: Take it home and set it up so that the POS people can install their software on it.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit.
Actually, I'm stuck in the middle of step 2. I have to take this opportunity to make it more enterprisey, even though I have very little experience with modern Windows Server technologies... But how hard can it be? I just want a server that can sit in their basement, run MSSQL and the POS app, plus do other little tasks, like print queueing and that sort of thing... And allow employees and owners to connect in remotely so that they can travel... And maybe help protect the terminals' web browsers from malware... and I need to be able to support it remotely. And....
So I figure I have to do all this stuff anyway, I'll just go ahead and set it all up: Active Directory, VPN, Internet gateway/proxy, etc. MSSQL will be the POS guy's problem :)
On the bright side, the server I bought has a Supermicro motherboard that supports KVMoverIP via IPMI. Which means I can sit with my laptop on the couch, while the server sits in the basement without a keyboard or monitor. Unfortunately, "in the basement" at the moment means in the middle of a construction zone. The only flat place to put it (that was close enough to the shelf that has my Internet router) was on top of the washing machine. Which apparently vibrates enough when it's running to bounce everything off of it. So the server fell the 5 feet to our new concrete floor. Crash.
Both hard drives are misbeaving, and there are broken platic bits of the front of the case.
Luckily, I have a spare 1TB hard drive in stock.
