I'm trying to figure out the best options when it comes to SQL replication. We have a client with 3 SQL databases that run on a single physical server. They would like some form of redundancy and fail over if the server or Database should fail. My first thoughts were to convert the physical SQL server to a VM and use Hyper V 2012r2 replication to replicate the VM to another host. This is an option but the hardware the current server resides on isn't new enough for 2012 R2 according to Dell. So we would have to purchase a new server for the first VM host.
Alternatively there is a identical server available that could be configured the same way the first one is and used as a SQL replication server. This seems like the a decent option but would require the management of two servers and doesn't offer a hardware agnostic platform in case the...