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First Steps

Kensium Implementation staff must perform several preparatory steps before implementing Kensium Point-of-Sale within a client's network.

Concepts

It is important to understand several concepts before proceeding with a POS installation.

Overview

Please review the Usage / Getting Started section of the documentation to understand how POS operates at a high-level.

In particular, review the System Requirements to ensure that a client's computing environment is ready to run POS.

Single versus Multiple Stores

Kensium POS can be operated within a simple single-store deployment or across a network environment with multiple locations. The choice of deployment types affects:

  • The POS components that are installed.
  • How the components interact with the client's network.
  • How the components communicate with each other.

The following Knowledge Base articles outline the key differences:

The N0003 - Third Party Services & Networking article describes some common network considerations when working with payment, tax, ERP and other third-party hosted services.

Actions

There are several actions that should be performed prior to installing Kensium POS.

IT Policies

One of the first things to determine is the client's approach to IT and any policies that may be in place.

For example:

  1. Security
  2. What type of antivirus software is in place?
  3. How are administrative and clerk logins managed, and what type of permissions are managed?
  4. What type of network firewalls and routing are in place?
  5. Are there are any restrictions on using Docker containers?
  6. Compatibility
  7. What type of hardware does the client use?
  8. Do the hardware and software meet Kensium POS minimum requirements?
  9. What other applications or software drivers are installed on the client's computers, and are they compatible with POS?
  10. Licensing and Compliance
  11. Does the client have any enterprise policies or regulatory requirements for managing software licenses?
  12. Backup and Recovery
  13. What type of backup and recovery plan is implemented by the client?
  14. Is there a rollback plan in case of installation failure or system instability?
  15. System Monitoring
  16. What type of monitoring tools does the client use to monitor performance and general IT issues?

Installation of Kensium POS should respect any client IT policies that are in place. For some smaller clients with minimal IT practices, to reduce deployment risk and maintenance, Kensium may also recommend certain IT measures that could be carried out by a third-party organization that can provide IT services.

Networking Environment

Another determination is what type of software is used to manage the client's IT network.

Traditionally, Kensium POS has been deployed on Windows-based computing networks. Microsoft's Active Directory - either deployed through Windows Server or Azure - is the most common type of management system. POS works well with such an environment. It is recommended for all clients that have non-trivial Windows networks to manage.

The following Knowledge Base article provides a background on Active Directory, although it is written with an emphasis on setting up a test environment: L0002 - Test with Active Directory.

Deployment to non-Windows networks is also possible. We will provide further guidance as that knowledge and operational practices are put in place.

DNS & SSL Certificates

Kensium POS requires the usage of TLS/SSL certificates to secure/encrypt communications between its components. The client might have a way of managing SSL certificates already, or Kensium must be prepared to suggest an approach.

By default, Kensium provides a standard DNS and SSL mechanism that works with its Docker container deployment model. This approach can be used in most circumstances, unless a client wants POS to run on their own host and domain names: in this case, the client must provide their SSL own certificates.

Organization ID

An Organization ID should be determined for the client. The Organization ID is used as the base for naming technical components within the Kensium support infrastructure, so that those components can easily be managed and identified using standard naming patterns.

Warning

The choice of Organization ID should be considered final. Changing an Organization ID after installation begins is difficult, and essentially requires a re-install of software.

The Organization ID is generally based on the client's name, but with a few limitations:

  • It can contain only alphanumeric characters.
  • It must not start with a numeric character.
  • It must be lower-case.
  • It must be unique amongst other organization IDs (case-insensitive).

Important

When using Kensium-managed DNS and SSL certificates, the Organization ID is reflected in the domain name used to access Kensium POS - for example, clientid.kensium-pos.com. The organization ID should be carefully considered to match the client's brand identity.

Open Telemetry

Kensium POS supports Open Telemetry compatible services to manage diagnostic information such as logs, traces and metrics.

Kensium bundles a default set of Open Telemetry components with its standard Docker deployment. If the client prefers to run their own infrastructure, or the legacy deployment approach must be employed, the Open Telemetry components must be manually configured.

See Open Telemetry for more information.

Implementation Checklists

TO DO

Modify this section to include links to Ops checklists and any process topics that we need. We could host downloadable Excel spreadsheet templates in this site, for example.