Three names
Decide who plays three roles. In a small office the same person may wear all three hats. Write the names anyway, because "whoever is around" is how a held email sits for a week.
The person who says yes for the business. This is the approver. Every send, payment, post and access change waits for their answer. Pick someone who understands the customer or the money, not the person who is merely nearest the computer.
A backup person for when they are away. Without a second name, the queue piles up on holidays and the temptation is to turn the approval off "just for this week."
A person who answers questions about files. Someone who knows where the current price list lives, which accounting export is the real one, and which folders nobody has opened since the old lease.
Our post on AI agent approvals is why the first two names matter once the agent is in the office. The third name matters on day 1, when we are staring at three folders called "final."
Where your data lives today
Tick each place you use, and write the service name or a count next to it. A blank "email" line is less useful than "Google Workspace, about 40,000 messages, two shared inboxes."
- Email, and which service holds it.
- Shared drives or cloud folders, and whose login owns the top folder.
- Laptops and desktops, and how many actually have work files on the local disk.
- Phones that hold work data, and how many.
- Accounting, store or scheduling software, and whether you can export.
- Paper you want scanned, and roughly how many boxes.
One customer's details can sit in email, a shared drive, a staff phone, an accounting app and a text thread. The list is how you see that sprawl on one page instead of discovering it on day 3. For each line, ask who else has access today, and whether anyone who has left still does.
How big your files are
A guess is fine. Write it in gigabytes, and write a question mark if you do not know. The size decides how long the first copy takes and how much backup storage to order. "A lot" does not help anyone buy a disk. "Maybe 2 TB of photos and under 100 GB of documents, question mark on the accounting export" does. If you are unsure, say so on the page. It gets sorted out on day one of the setup week, with the machines in front of us, rather than invented on the phone.
Where the server goes
A server is a small computer that stays on. It is not a laptop you close at 6. Check four things before you fall in love with a shelf:
- A wall outlet close enough that you are not running a daisy chain of power strips.
- A network cable to the router or switch. Wi-Fi for the server is how the first week gets flaky.
- Room for air to move around the box, including the back, where the heat actually leaves.
- A spot only people you trust can reach. A hallway cabinet that every contractor opens is not that spot.
Heat is the failure we keep walking into. A small server in a hot closet slows down or stops, and it often does it on the warmest afternoon, which is when nobody wants to diagnose a fan. If a closet is the only option, check that the room stays under 30 °C and that air can move around the box. Cracking the door an inch is not a cooling plan.
If the server is an NVIDIA DGX Spark, follow NVIDIA's spacing: 10 cm in front (about 4 in), 2 cm on each side (under 1 in) and 40 cm at the rear (about 16 in)[1]. NVIDIA gives a room temperature range of 5 to 30 °C (41 to 86 °F)[2]. Take a tape measure to the spot before setup day. The rear clearance is the one people underestimate, because the shelf looked deep enough until the cable and the power brick were in it.
Consider a UPS. That is a battery box that keeps the server on for a few minutes if the power drops, long enough for a clean shutdown instead of a hard cut. Ask which size fits the server you are actually buying. Also note who can let the installer in during the week, and bring a photo of the spot with the outlet and the cable in frame.
Accounts stay in your name
Bring the login names of the accounts you will work with: the email provider, the domain registrar, the accounting service, the shared-drive admin. The accounts stay in your name and under your control. We will not ask you to read a password aloud or to send one in a message. If a sign-in is needed, you type it on the screen we are both looking at, and then you change it if it was ever written down. Never put a password on the checklist, not in the margin, not "just for the day."
The checklist on one page
| Item | Done |
|---|---|
| Approver and backup approver named | |
| Where my data lives listed, with the service or a count | |
| Rough size of files written down, or a question mark | |
| Spot chosen: dry, ventilated, trusted people only | |
| Power outlet and network cable checked | |
| Room stays under 30 °C | |
| UPS decided, yes or no, and which size if yes | |
| Account login names ready, no passwords | |
| Someone can let the installer in, and you have a photo of the spot |
If a line is unsure, write a question mark and the question. Day one is for sorting those out, with the room and the machines in front of us.
What happens next
In the one-week install, day 1 is the room, the power, the network and the list of your data. Day 2 installs the server software and Hermes Desktop and pins their versions. Day 3 copies the files in and sets up backups. Day 4 is the restore test with you watching, and you do not sign acceptance before a file comes back and matches. Day 5 pairs your devices and tries the first approved job. You leave with a handover record. The exact days depend on your office, and the written quote governs if the order has to change. Plan my install when the list is far enough along that the first call will be about your room, not about what a server is.
Questions
What do I need before a server setup?
A named approver and a backup approver, a list of where the data lives, a spot with power and a network cable, a rough file size, and the login names of the accounts involved. Passwords stay off the page.
Where should a small office server go?
Somewhere dry and cool, with air moving around the box, near an outlet and a network cable, where only people you trust can reach it. A closed hot closet is the mistake we keep undoing.
Do I need a UPS?
It is worth deciding before setup day, yes or no. A UPS keeps the server up through a short power cut so it can shut down cleanly. The useful question is which size fits your server, not whether battery boxes exist in general.
Should I give my installer my passwords?
No. The accounts stay in your name. If a sign-in is needed, you type it on a screen you can see. Nobody reads a password aloud, and it does not get written on the checklist.
How long does the setup take?
The one-week install is five days in your office. The restore test is on day 4, and acceptance waits until you have seen it pass. The written quote governs if your office needs the days in a different order.
Sources
- NVIDIA, DGX Spark Quick Start Guide. nvidia.com
- NVIDIA, DGX Spark User Guide, Hardware Overview. docs.nvidia.com
What to do next
Kodros puts private AI on hardware you own: the model, the app and the compute, in your building. Every send, post and payment waits for a person. If you leave, you keep the hardware, the files and the memory.
More to read
- How to back up a small business server and prove the restore works
Three copies, one of them offline, then restore a real file and compare it. That is the backup plan we run with a small office.
- How to make an AI agent ask before it sends, pays or deletes
The agent can draft the email. A named person approves every send, payment, post and access change, and only a person deletes in the tool.