Migrate from Standalone Instance to Failover Node Instance

Question

I am fairly new to the MS SQL and i am currently working on a project at my company. We have a ERP System built on a SQL Server and we want to create a SQL failover node.

The original configuration is like this :

SQL Standalone Instance SERVER -> SAN Storage (Storage for MDF & LDF).

Is it possible to create a new server, install SQL Server Failover Instance from scratch, then connect the same primary SAN Storage. Import all the user credentials from standalone (original instance) to the new server.?

And when ready to migrate, we simply turn off the Standalone SQL Server, and attach all mdf files in the new server? will this method be good to migrate from standalone instance to failover instance?

Then we have a one node sql cluster available for users to work on

Later we uninstall standalone instance and install a failover sql node on the source Server, then WSFC etc, making it 2 node SQL Cluster?

I thank you for any help that you could provide.

Asif

Answer 1

This is not really advisable. Install and validate your WSFC then install and test the clustered SQL Server instance on each WSFC node. SQL Server can be really picky about installing to additional nodes of a WSFC cluster and you could easily find it failing leaving you with a one node cluster.

Also storage has a level of indirection for a cluster with ownership of a disk(s) that contains the datafiles for an instance being passed around as necessary.

• Asif Khan: Thanks Brian for your comment. To add to the scenario, Currently i have Windows Failover Cluster Installed on both the servers, and i have attached the DB Location Drives on the SAN Storage to both servers using dedicated Fiber channel ports on the HPE MSA SAN. As per your suggestion i will try to validate the WSFC without doing the SQL Cluster and once WSFC is ok, i will detach db's from standalone instance and try to attach on a fresh Cluster Instance to see how it goes.
• Asif Khan: sqlsolutionsgroup.com/migrate-sql-server Methodology #5 is something that i want to implement, however it doesnt document everything there.