I met with Ada at Lab111 and we discussed the project. We went into hardware configurations, as well as defining all the services that should run on the new server.
Ada advised me that most ARM single board computers would not be up to the task, since the Salwa configuration is quite complicated (file server, office suite, video calling/chatting/calendar). However, it's good to think about energy efficiency: a server rack can easily cost 2000€ in electricty for one year. One option would be someone's old laptop, but of course it's good to think about form factor as well, after all I also want to build a case for this machine.
So, we will look for SBCs with an x86 processor with at least 8 cores. The Odroid H2+ that Paul and I are using would have been perfect, but is no longer being manufactured due to the chip shortage. There are some really powerful ones, but they are above our budget. We will check marktplaats.
In term of storage we discussed to set up two large hard drives in a RAID configuration, so that they always mirror each other. That means if one drive dies, no data is lost. Additionally, we would get a plan for an offsite backup. This is called the 3/2/1 rule of backing up: 3 backups, on 2 media and 1 offsite.
We are discussing two options here: either two drives directly connected to the main machine, or an additional computer (for example Odroid HC4) with two drives, that is connected to the main machine over Gigabit Ethernet. This could function as a file server/NAS even when the main machine is offline, for example for maintenance.
We agreed that during the week I would send her configurations for approval before buying them and that Friday we would meet again to get things up and running.