1.)According to brent ozar's HA and DR chart,for Failover Cluster Instance - SQL Server minimum version supported and SQL Server minimum edition required is given as 'any'. Does that mean it works with sql express? or am I misinterpreting the meaning of 'any'? According to microsoft it doesn't work for sql express.
2.)Same chart also says that sql server Replication can automatically failover. Here is what I found. How does the automatic failover happen in case of replication if it is possible?
express does not support FCI. I think the meaning of any means any production edition and this is not express, usually.
sql server express support replication as subscriber only: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/editions-and-components-of-sql-server-version-15?view=sql-server-ver15#Replication About failover, you can't fail over on subcriber-only members and, in the case you are studing, HA is reached with the help of Availability Groups. So definitely throw away sql express to have better options for HA and DR.
