ntrovato (6/10/2014)

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I will be using Steeleye Datakeeper to do the clustering of SQL 2008 ... it does not require shared storage. See below.

http://clusteringformeremortals.com/2009/09/15/step-by-step-configuring-a-2-node-multi-site-cluster-on-windows-server-2008-r2-%E2%80%93-part-1/%5B/quote%5D

It's replicated storage which although not strictly shared it does emulate shared storage for cross site purposes.

Do you need to keep the same SQL Server instance name?

If not, you can deploy a single node cluster using the new server, install a new clustered instance of sql server. Migrate all objects (users, agent jobs, linked srevers, etc, etc) from the standalone server to the new cluster. When you're ready down the standalone server and get the databases moved to the new cluster.

Take an image of the old server and flatten the OS. Deploy a clean OS install and join to the new cluster. Once joined, add the node to the clustered sql instance(s).