Hi Keith,
Once you’ve got Server 2012R2 AO making sound (I use minimal server version) then the architecture and installation procedure I’d suggest is:
Install 64 bit RoonServer on headless server. This is your Core. It will setup with default empty library, we add your real library later.
Install Roon on PC and point it at RoonServer. It will be a Remote.
Go to Settings/Storage on the Remote and add a Watched folder on your NAS, usually top level Music folder is best. This will configure your Core to see your library on the NAS. Roon will import and analyse your library.
While your library is importing you can install Roon on the laptop (or any other devices) and point it at the Core. These will be further Remotes.
That’s it ! Hopefully should all work.
In this post I set out my understanding of the underlying architecture which may be of general assistance.
If you are having troubles with Remotes seeing the Core then have a look in this post. If that doesn’t fix things then we’ll flag down a dev to investigate.
Cheers !