Norco 4224 Thread

[joshpond]

I don't have too many drives running at the moment but one SATA connection on the backplane is enough so far.

 

Also replace the 2x 80mm fans at the rear. They are the jet engines. I haven't replaced my 4x middle ones as I don't hear mine in the closet so I have a 3 fan plate with arctic cooling PWM fans sitting here. Just didn't see the need so replace the middle ones after you've had a listen depending on where you want to put the box.

 

Josh

[cylon]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

 

@starcat - I am going to order a Super Micro X8SIL-F motherboard and control the fan speed through that. I live in a fairly hot climate (Queensland, Australia) so am very paranoid about drives overheating.

 

@starcat, Rajahal, levster, joshpond - It sounds like I should start with Norco recommended best practice and only hook up half the molex connectors. If I run into problems I will plug in the other half.

 

@levster - I read the thread you linked to, could the fact that you experienced the same problem with two different PSUs be to do with overloading a power rail? I read somewhere here that it is important to use a PSU with a single rail as you risk overloading a rail if it has multiple.

[levster]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

 

@starcat - I am going to order a Super Micro X8SIL-F motherboard and control the fan speed through that. I live in a fairly hot climate (Queensland, Australia) so am very paranoid about drives overheating.

 

@starcat, Rajahal, levster, joshpond - It sounds like I should start with Norco recommended best practice and only hook up half the molex connectors. If I run into problems I will plug in the other half.

 

@levster - I read the thread you linked to, could the fact that you experienced the same problem with two different PSUs be to do with overloading a power rail? I read somewhere here that it is important to use a PSU with a single rail as you risk overloading a rail if it has multiple.

 

Cylon,

 

I tried two different PSUs and the one that I am using, Corsair I believe is a single rail design. Most people underestimate the importance of using a quality PSU. Having said that, since connecting the second power molex I have not had a single issue. Just to confirm that the power connection was the issue, I tried disconnecting the additional molexes and the system would not boot up. Perhaps my experience is unique, but after extensive trial and error, and mostly error, this was the only thing that made the difference.

 

Lev

[joshpond]

Cylon,

 

I live in north queensland so it gets hot enough up here. I find with the 2 rear fans replaced with arctic cooling 80mm and leaving the original 80 mm mid fans the temps on my samsungs 1.5tbs stay aroun low to mid 30 for parity checks. I've just put a WD20EARS in and I'm finding that gets to high 30s, don't know why but it's resting temp is on average about 3-5C above the samsungs.

 

I couldn't get the fan control thing to work on mine so it just runs all the time.

 

Josh

[jortan]

I tried two different PSUs and the one that I am using, Corsair I believe is a single rail design. Most people underestimate the importance of using a quality PSU. Having said that, since connecting the second power molex I have not had a single issue. Just to confirm that the power connection was the issue, I tried disconnecting the additional molexes and the system would not boot up. Perhaps my experience is unique, but after extensive trial and error, and mostly error, this was the only thing that made the difference.

 

How strange.  I wonder if the result would be the same if you connected the second set of molexes by themselves (ie. is there some problem with the first set)

 

Then again, if it ain't broke...

[levster]

I tried two different PSUs and the one that I am using, Corsair I believe is a single rail design. Most people underestimate the importance of using a quality PSU. Having said that, since connecting the second power molex I have not had a single issue. Just to confirm that the power connection was the issue, I tried disconnecting the additional molexes and the system would not boot up. Perhaps my experience is unique, but after extensive trial and error, and mostly error, this was the only thing that made the difference.

 

How strange.  I wonder if the result would be the same if you connected the second set of molexes by themselves (ie. is there some problem with the first set)

 

Then again, if it ain't broke...

 

I did try that and had the same problem. Again, just my experience and may just be a fluke.

[starcat]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

 

@starcat - I am going to order a Super Micro X8SIL-F motherboard and control the fan speed through that. I live in a fairly hot climate (Queensland, Australia) so am very paranoid about drives overheating.

 

@starcat, Rajahal, levster, joshpond - It sounds like I should start with Norco recommended best practice and only hook up half the molex connectors. If I run into problems I will plug in the other half.

 

@levster - I read the thread you linked to, could the fact that you experienced the same problem with two different PSUs be to do with overloading a power rail? I read somewhere here that it is important to use a PSU with a single rail as you risk overloading a rail if it has multiple.

 

I tried two different PSUs and the one that I am using, Corsair I believe is a single rail design. Most people underestimate the importance of using a quality PSU. Having said that, since connecting the second power molex I have not had a single issue. Just to confirm that the power connection was the issue, I tried disconnecting the additional molexes and the system would not boot up. Perhaps my experience is unique, but after extensive trial and error, and mostly error, this was the only thing that made the difference.

 

Again, the official recommendation by Norco is to connect only one side of the molexes with single PSUs. By using 750HX or 850HX there are no problems whatsoever. Maybe something else was broken...

[starcat]

@starcat - I am going to order a Super Micro X8SIL-F motherboard and control the fan speed through that. I live in a fairly hot climate (Queensland, Australia) so am very paranoid about drives overheating.

 

Take a look here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=11310.0

I think the X8SIL is pretty much similar and that you can use the scripts shown (adapt only number of disk drives and the fan device itself).

[madburg]

Is there any downloadable spec sheet for the Norco 4224, I just purchased one (new egg) and not a single sheet of paper inside (Still shipping with the 80mm Mid fans... BIG disappoinment). Dont mind them being green but at least a pdf we can download would be appreciated. Specifications and part list (besides the PSU bracket, seem to be 3 and some sort of (2) standoff plates, I dont know what the rest can be used for. The bags with screws were the only thing labeled).

 

If this is not available can someone share OR norcotek have the specs for the original fans in the 4224:

 

1) Mid Plate: (4) Size: 80mm / Air Flow: ?? CFMs / Noise Level: ?.?? Sone / Pins: #? /  PWM ?

2) Rear: (2) Size: 80mm / Air Flow: ?? CFMs / Noise Level: ?.?? Sone / Pins: #? /  PWM ?

 

Gripes:

1) 4 holes are pre-drilled in the top cover only 2 drilled in the chassis, 2 screws secure cover plate (top), seems that maybe this cover is used on other models that do have 4 secure points?

 

2) Majority of the drive cages were all pushed in deeper than they should be, most likely do to shipping. Norco needs to add additional measures to protect them. One ended up being damaged, no way to pull it out without scratching the plastic. Will contact and see how it goes.

 

3) Purchased the Norco 26” Rail kit at the same time. All screws were defective to mount the rails to the chassis, never seen anything like it. Welds/debris  or something on the inside of the screw heads not one can be screwed in flush.

 

Many screws supplied with the rail kit but only 6 washers, again no instructions for which Norco recommends should have washers on them.

 

Screws are WAY too thin as well as the plate to mount the rails to a standard server rack, this one is just ridiculous. Now I have a project on my hand to beef this up. Once tighten were the plates (ultra-thin gauge plates) were starting to bend and would not allow a flush mount with the server pushed in the server mounted in. While working installing the power supply the rail kit with the Norco Case dropped ¼” as the weight was greater than what they could handle until the skinny rail screws hit the bottom of the server rack “square” mounting holes.

 

And last, the rails do not extend enough to get the top cover off the server for maintenance, etc... Have to release the rails to extend the unit out, making it very dangerous once fully loaded with drives. Dont know what can be done about this, outside off bringing a table under neath the server before extending out... not good.

[madburg]

Is it safe to power all the stock fans provided with the Norco 4224 case to fan headers on a motherboard?

I am using a SuperMicro X8SI6-F Motherboard.

[vexhold]

Just contact Norco. They are one of the best companies I have dealt with when it comes to making the customer happy after they get a damaged product.

[madburg]

Just contact Norco. They are one of the best companies I have dealt with when it comes to making the customer happy after they get a damaged product.

 

Spoke to a rep yesturday, he requested I send them pictures, I just put the email together and sent it off to [email protected]

I hope your statement holds true, as I am a bit down right now, with this. The rails/sliders and ballbearings are fine for the price, but the mounting design and screw/plate gauge are horrific AND then topped off with the unit is unable to be completely slid out. I just dont know what they will be able to do about it...

[Rajahal]

I don't have any exact specs on the fans, but I can anecdotally report that in the latest version of the 4224 (with no front USB port) the middle 80mm fans are quiet and the rear 80mm fans are loud (and double-thickness).  In the original version, all fans were loud and double-thickness.  I consider the rear fans to be superfluous, I would just remove them or leave them unplugged.  By the way, what gave you the impression that the Norco shipped with 120mm fans?  Many unRAID users have upgraded to them, but I don't believe that anyone has said that they came with the case.

 

Yes, it is safe to power all the fans off of the motherboard.

 

I believe a lot of the extra hardware included with the case is intended to allow you to mount a second (redundant) power supply inside the case.  It isn't needed for an average unRAID server.

 

I can't explain the extra screw holes on the case's lid, but I can't complain about it either as with just two screws the lid is plenty secure.

 

I've also seen empty drive trays pushed in too far, but I've never seen one damaged because of it.

 

I've never used the Norco rails (or tried to rackmount the case), but I'm sorry to hear about your bad experiences with them.  Hopefully Norcotek will make it right.

 

While the 4224 may not be perfect, keep in mind that it is hundreds if not thousands of dollars cheaper than the alternatives from other companies.  So Norco has the 'budget server case' market completely to themselves.  I personally have had 99% good experiences with them, so I'll continue to buy them and use them in my designs.

[madburg]

Mike from Norco has contacted me already and we are working this out. I need to get out of the office now so I will reply to Rajahal's comments later as well as update my Norco support experience. But right now I can give them 5 Stars for extremely fast response and replacement, etc.. offering immediately. I have never given one to a company before. 4/4.5 but not 5   looking much brighter. The rails is the tuff one as I knew it was not like I ordered the wrong set or something and just needs to be replaced with correct set.

 

[madburg]

I don't have any exact specs on the fans, but I can anecdotally report that in the latest version of the 4224 (with no front USB port) the middle 80mm fans are quiet and the rear 80mm fans are loud (and double-thickness).  In the original version, all fans were loud and double-thickness.  I consider the rear fans to be superfluous, I would just remove them or leave them unplugged.  By the way, what gave you the impression that the Norco shipped with 120mm fans?  Many unRAID users have upgraded to them, but I don't believe that anyone has said that they came with the case.

 

I believe that each person should check their personal configuration ( SATA or SAS drive types, their speeds, etc... in this chassis) against reporting temps in their environment and make their decision on sizing and quantity of fans. I don’t believe stating "I consider the rear fans to be superfluous, I would just remove them or leave them unplugged." being a firm statement in an open forum where not everyone understands all possibility that can cause their unit to run above acceptable levels. Your experience with this chassis and configuration is appreciated and for other to compare to what they are building and possible expectations. I say this because I believe the original chassis of the 4224 that shipped with what you are calling double-thickness fans are more enterprise grade fans. In a chassis that is high density and has possibility to run enterprise SAS drive up 15k speed would most likely require such a ventilation configuration, as it could also reside in a rack with other high density chassis's. And the db levels are already off the chart and would not matter (fit right in with the rest of one’s equipment)

 

I would like to make a formal request to NORCO to please let us know at the very least the CFMs of the current rear 80mm fans (which were probably the same in the mid plate in the original units) and what the current shipped Mid-Plate 80mm fans CFMs are. This would give us a benchmark to work with. So if someone felt the same could be achieve with third party fans but with lower db levels, they know how close they are. There are too many variations of what people would find acceptable, if it resides in a living room, but with all green drive, one may choose one config, etc… I will personally see what they are like first, temps and work from there and the publish CFMs from NORCO would help greatly. My gear is in a half-height server rack with HP Servers, MSA unit, etc.. so until I power it up to hear I won’t know; as well as temps in my rack. Hope you can consider what I am stating here. I do believe that majority of people probably are looking for a quieter solution and would be able to not use the rear units. Clearly Norco listened and there must have been more home then business requirements and then downgraded the mid fans in return for lower db levels. But you have to ask yourself they didn’t do it for the rear one. That’s not to say they are mandatory for everyone’s config.

As for the 120mm fan plate, I explained my understanding to NORCO and they are making their decision, is how I must leave this answer at to your question. But it is resolved satisfactory already.

 

Yes, it is safe to power all the fans off of the motherboard.

Many thanks for the confirmation, so if I stayed with the current fans, I would need to buy some sort of 4 pin Molex to 4 pin fan header gender changer dongle? Or is there a crimp version and just need to clip off the old 4 pin molex connector off the existing fans? I notice the stock fans are four wire but only 2 go to the molex adaptors. Would transitioning this to a 4 pin fan hear with only these 2 wires allow the board to see fan speeds and control the speeds (don’t even know if the fans themselves support that type of control)? Sorry been a long while on the hardware front, definitely need help in this area.

 

I believe a lot of the extra hardware included with the case is intended to allow you to mount a second (redundant) power supply inside the case.  It isn't needed for an average unRAID server.

My second formal request to NORCO is to please publish a pdf for anyone to download the parts/description list for this case. Clearly they know of PSUs that require a certain combination of these parts, as well as motherboards that require those extra stand off plates, etc… I don’t believe they are paying for parts that are included and NO one uses at all, right.

 

I can't explain the extra screw holes on the case's lid, but I can't complain about it either as with just two screws the lid is plenty secure.

The case lid is secure as the front recesses into the front bezel of the drive carrier which is where the lid has pre drilled holes but not in the chassis to accept screws, and the rear of the lid which could pop open has the holes both for the lid and chassis and provided screws. Maybe the lid is used in other models as well and those cases have pre-drilled hole in that area… for me it was more of build quality and frustration that since the rails don’t allow me to extend the case completely out I cannot remove the screw to open the lid.

 

I've also seen empty drive trays pushed in too far, but I've never seen one damaged because of it.

You now official heard of it  , pictures were submitted and accepted. I was not too worried as this is a simple replacement and it am slowly putting it together so it was not a rush situation or like 50% were damage. But I clearly saw that something like foam/wrap etc could be placed in each to better protect. I did think it over and (only they would know) if this happen to one in 1000 case it may be cheaper to send replacements that pay to better protect each unit. This is for them to decide.

 

I've never used the Norco rails (or tried to rackmount the case), but I'm sorry to hear about your bad experiences with them.  Hopefully Norcotek will make it right.

Yes, this is the hardest part to rectify, I was told “we’re working on new version rails to improve mounting” which immediately pleased me knowing the issue is accepted and some plan is in place, I know it does not solve my current issue at the moment, but it shows they are not sleeping. They have offered two possibilities so far. I will be looking into the second one on a clear head tomorrow. It is a shame as I expressed the rails/slide and ball bearing are acceptable for this case and price point it’s the mounting hardware that is a fail and the fact that the unit cannot be extended out fully.

 

While the 4224 may not be perfect, keep in mind that it is hundreds if not thousands of dollars cheaper than the alternatives from other companies.  So Norco has the 'budget server case' market completely to themselves.  I personally have had 99% good experiences with them, so I'll continue to buy them and use them in my designs.

I appreciate your experiences and others who have posted NORCO support is excellent. And can share that by the time I got home I already had an email from UPS for a label prepped from NORCO that they would be shipping the replacement parts out to me that were offered. So the 5 Star support rating still stands from me. I am by no means bitter of a drive cage or two damage in shipping, or the lid, it is primarily the rail kit, for me it was all at once and not knowing how their support level works I was bummed. And post here, and as always quick responses.

 

Just too throw it out there as you mentioned price point for their products. If you bought a flat panel TV and did not need any fancy mount, and say the manufacture makes a mount for the model you are buying and it’s in stock and reasonable. But you get home and the hardware is not to par to hang such a heavy (nice) TV up on a wall and when you go to hang it and there is no room to get your hand to secure it properly… this is the best way I could explain how I feel about the rails. For me it’s the convince, once I am done with the build I may not play with it for months but the initial ability to work with the case in the rack and know future access is as easy as the rest of my racked gear I felt it was worth going with the manufactures rail kit for their server line and not have to waste time looking for any other third party gear that may or may not work with it. And I am sure they are happy that I didn’t look elsewhere, it was unfortunately subpar in key areas (not totally) to the actually chassis they sell.

 

I will post a postmortem once all is resolved.

 

[Rajahal]

You make a good point about my take on the rear fans.  In the 'green' servers that I build that focus on green drives, low power CPUs, etc. the rear fans are not needed.  However, for someone who wants to build a server using all 7200 rpm drives, a power hungry dual Xeon CPUs, etc. then the rear fans may be required.

 

Many thanks for the confirmation, so if I stayed with the current fans, I would need to buy some sort of 4 pin Molex to 4 pin fan header gender changer dongle? Or is there a crimp version and just need to clip off the old 4 pin molex connector off the existing fans? I notice the stock fans are four wire but only 2 go to the molex adaptors. Would transitioning this to a 4 pin fan hear with only these 2 wires allow the board to see fan speeds and control the speeds (don’t even know if the fans themselves support that type of control)? Sorry been a long while on the hardware front, definitely need help in this area.

 

I don't believe that the stock fans' speed can be controlled by the motherboard.  For this, you would need 4 pin PVM fans.  I don't know how that would work with the fans' shared power board either...you might have to connect each fan individually to the motherboard.  That's what I do when I use 120mm fans.

 

I believe that if you remove the stock fans from the power board, each one uses a standard 3 pin power port.  If the cables are long enough, you could plug those in to the motherboard directly, no adapter needed.

 

I think we are in agreement on every other point you made.  Norco's cases really could benefit from some proper documentation, even if it was a downloadable PDF and not actually included with the case.  I'm glad they are handling your rail issue well.

 

By the way, please post your pics of the damaged drive tray if it is convenient...I would be interested to see them.

[madburg]

Well I have been working on my build/testing for two nights. I have to bow down Rajahal, the rear fans (which I gave credit hoping they were enterprise grade fans) are nothing short of obnoxious (like take them out and step on them), louder than any enterprise server I own and work with. It has this fluctuating whirl to them, ouch. Well no big deal, the price point on the case is fine and they are easily replaced at low cost if one needs this additional cooling. I personally am planning on it.

 

Question, the case comes with these ribbon cables (aqua green, pretty cool) that route to the front panel for the power button, reset button, NIC1/2 HD LEDs. The actual plastic, dont know what to call them, female plugs that go into a Motherboard male prongs, are huge and the connection on the supermicro motherboard seem like the standard spacing with all other boards I have seen, the Norco plastic connectors are very wide... I was connecting Power/Reset/Nic1/Nic2/HD one next to the other, it was killer, I needed to bend the motherboard pins (like in a fan shape) to get these to fit side by side. then there was 2 spaces and the last to connections were made (forgot what they were for). Have you and anyone else experienced this? Any recommendations?

 

Thanks for the fans info above, I have more questions but will post in the 4224 rear fan post.

 

What service do you guys recommend to be able to post pictures?

 

Rajahal,  visualize this with the drive cage, the handle was open at a 45% angle and recessedinto the drive cage about 1/4-1/2 in at an angle and you could neither close the HD cage handle nor open it. I had to forcefully remove it. But I have more bad news on this front, it looks like the backplane is damaged due to this. Drives communicate in that slot, but the LED in the back (nor green or blue) light up... I made them aware and tested cages I new and saw light up in other slots. I explained this to them and will run one more test tonight and that is move the SAS connecter to another backplane and see if all the drive cages light up, if they do then its not a faulty sas cable or controller card issue.

 

[Rajahal]

Thanks for the info.  I've never had an issue with plugging the front panel pins onto the motherboard, but I've also never used the motherboard that you are using.  If the fit is tight, I would suggest leaving off all the unnecessary pins.  Technically the only one you really need is the power button.  The NIC2 LED will never be used by unRAID, so it is OK to leave off.  The NIC1 will be used, but do you really care to have a light blinking whenever the server has any network activity?  I don't.  The reset button can be useful in troubleshooting scenarios, but is ultimately just a convenience.  I would be wary about bending any motherboard pins as that would likely void the warranty.

 

Here's a little tip I just figured out last night regarding the front panel cable.  As I'm sure you've noticed, the cable is far longer than it needs to be to reach the motherboard.  In the 4224 build I'm currently working on, I've installed the 120 mm fan plate (in the second position, closer to the motherboard) and fans (mounted on the motherboard side of the fan plate).  I found that wrapping the front panel cable around the left-most 120 mm fan's outer casing took up just enough slack to shorten the front panel cable to just the right length.  You can then affix the cable to the fan's casing by running some zip ties or twist ties through the fan's unused screw holes.

 

Imgur is my favorite image host, primarily because it isn't blocked by my work's draconian firewalls .  So if you want me to be able to see the image, use imgur.

 

From what you've described, I'm not too surprised that the backplane was damaged as well.  Let me know how removing and replacing the backplane goes.  I've never had to do it myself, but it looks like each backplane was designed to be removable with just a few thumbscrews.  I assume you would have to remove the fan plate as well.

[madburg]

Oh boy, more bad news for me. Second backplane from the bottom is defective or damaged... cannot insert a drive into the right most slot. the SATA connector is all the way down against the chassis. On another backplane I am not receiving the data activity Blue LED on a drive that was preclearing.

 

So I need to stop eveything I was doing with testing unraid and iron out this Norco 4224 Chassis I recieved. Here is what I would like to do, and need some suggestions.

 

Using the onboard SATA ports (4) to rule out any SAS/SATA controllers, take 4 of my smallest drives 80gb (perfect drives, no issues and precleared many times on a lab system, and used to use them in another server, before this) put them into one backplace row and either add them to the unraid array (no data on them) and do a parity sync to get the drive activity kicked off on all of them and make sure all Blue LED activity lights work. My question is how long would a parity check take? and what is the command or addon I can use to execute the parity check? Then shutdown move them up one backplane and repeat unitl I have tested all backplanes.

 

Or maybe bring up these 4 Drives in unraid, select a large file say a .mkv and kick off a copy to each disk (\\tower\disk1,2,3,4) and that too would kick in the drive activity Blue LEDs but save me time?

 

I need to get this done fast and reliably. Need to know that both LEDs work per slot as well as connectivity in each slot. So I can get this info out to Norco asap.

[Jomp]

Oh boy, more bad news for me. Second backplane from the bottom is defective or damaged... cannot insert a drive into the right most slot. the SATA connector is all the way down against the chassis. On another backplane I am not receiving the data activity Blue LED on a drive that was preclearing.

 

So I need to stop eveything I was doing with testing unraid and iron out this Norco 4224 Chassis I recieved. Here is what I would like to do, and need some suggestions.

 

Using the onboard SATA ports (4) to rule out any SAS/SATA controllers, take 4 of my smallest drives 80gb (perfect drives, no issues and precleared many times on a lab system, and used to use them in another server, before this) put them into one backplace row and either add them to the unraid array (no data on them) and do a parity sync to get the drive activity kicked off on all of them and make sure all Blue LED activity lights work. My question is how long would a parity check take? and what is the command or addon I can use to execute the parity check? Then shutdown move them up one backplane and repeat unitl I have tested all backplanes.

 

Or maybe bring up these 4 Drives in unraid, select a large file say a .mkv and kick off a copy to each disk (\\tower\disk1,2,3,4) and that too would kick in the drive activity Blue LEDs but save me time?

 

I need to get this done fast and reliably. Need to know that both LEDs work per slot as well as connectivity in each slot. So I can get this info out to Norco asap.

 

Yeah, I like my Norco, functionally, but the QA is...questionable. The Norco price is right, but the Supermico's sure are nicer.

 

 

[Rajahal]

madburg, to save time you can do what I do when I burn in a client's server's drive bays: run the preclear script with the -n modifier.  This causes the script to skip the initial pre-read and run only the zeroing phase and the post read.  With a 2 TB drive this takes around 6 hours.  With 80 GB drives, it should take much less time than that, probably less than 1 hour.  During the writing phase you should see the drive's activity light blinking.  If you have enough drives, I would suggest running one pass of preclear on each of 4 drives all connected to the same backplane.  That way you can also test if the backplane is able to handle many I/Os going at once.

 

What you proposed will work as well, the above is just a lot faster.  If you want to run a parity check, you would initiate it from the unRAID web GUI or from unMenu.

 

Jomp, I don't think Norco's QA is at fault here, madburg's case was damaged during shipping.

[wkwjones]

Any chance the 120mm fan place will show up for the 3U series?  (3116 ans 3216)

 

You could always customize a 4020 120mm fan bracket to fit a 3116 or 3216 case.  As per attached pic

[madburg]

madburg, to save time you can do what I do when I burn in a client's server's drive bays: run the preclear script with the -n modifier.  This causes the script to skip the initial pre-read and run only the zeroing phase and the post read.  With a 2 TB drive this takes around 6 hours.  With 80 GB drives, it should take much less time than that, probably less than 1 hour.  During the writing phase you should see the drive's activity light blinking.  If you have enough drives, I would suggest running one pass of preclear on each of 4 drives all connected to the same backplane.  That way you can also test if the backplane is able to handle many I/Os going at once.

 

What you proposed will work as well, the above is just a lot faster.  If you want to run a parity check, you would initiate it from the unRAID web GUI or from unMenu.

 

Jomp, I don't think Norco's QA is at fault here, madburg's case was damaged during shipping.

 

Great stuff, I have been meaning to ask JoeL the purpose of the initial pre-read in the preclear_disk script. It is getting S.M.A.R.T. data first then I would assume you would write to the drive first then read the whole drive and end with a S.M.A.R.T dump at the end, so there must be some reason it is good/better to first pre-read before writing. Knowledge is key so hopefully I find out one day why that is.

 

I did not receive any response over the weekend and the four disks I was using were already precleared. So I went with copying 20GB of .mkv’s to each drive at the same time. I got a lemon  :'(, unfortunately.

 

Results:

Starting from the highest (top) backplane, I will call this Backplane #1 and slots are #1Left -> #4 Right.

Backplane #1 = GOOD, but blue LED very dim (can barely see the blue light) on Slots #1 & #2

Backplane #2 = GOOD, but blue LED very dim (can barely see the blue light) on Slot #1 & #4

Backplane #3 = BAD, No communication with drive (not seeing drive at all in Slot #4) tried reseating the drive 3 times before I even got a Green LED that it received power, still no communication with the drive.

Backplane #4 = BAD, No blue activity LED on Slot #1

Backplane #5 = BAD, Slot#4 the SATA plug on the backplane is sitting down at the level of the drive cage.

Backplane #6 = BAD, No Green (power) LED on Slot #2 (This is where the damage drive cage was when I first contacted them).

 

I sent an email around 2pm with this info, just had no time at work in the morning. No response as of yet. My prior email to them on Friday was a heads up there are more issues and would be testing all slot/backplanes. I asked if I should RMA and get a new one, Mike stated it would not be necessary to go ahead and test and confirm what parts are defective. I really hope to hear back soon and they rush these backplanes out so I can have it all up and running for the weekend. As I will have to retest all over again with the new parts.

 

Has anyone else seen blue (activity) LEDs being very dim? I am wondering if I should settle for the first 2 backplanes having 4 very dim blue LEDs. Remember I was using the same drive cages per backplane so I saw bright Green/Blue LEDs and on some slots with the same drive cage they were very dim… This happens to everyone every so often, but this is one of the things I wanted perfect for sure.

 

[madburg]

I found the info on both the rear and mid plate fans that shipped with the Norco 4224:

 

Mid Plate: (4) Size: 80 x 80 x 25.4 mm / Speed: 3000 RPM / Air Flow: 35.31 CFMs / Noise Level: 31.0 dB-A / Pins: 2 / PWM: NO

Delta Electronics, Inc Part Number: AFB0812H

http://www.datasheetpro.com/508371_download_AFB0812H_datasheet.html

 

Rear: (2) Size: 80 x 80 x 38 mm / Speed: 5700 RPM / Air Flow: 80.16 CFMs / Noise Level: 52.5 dB-A / Pins: 2 / PWM: NO

Delta Electronics, Inc Part Number: FFB0812EHE

http://www.datasheetpro.com/506649_download_FFB0812EHE_datasheet.html

 

[madburg]

Received an email from Norco an hour ago, I called them back to make sure i understood. I have to take the chassis apart get the backplanes out and then mail them on my dime to them. Once they receive they will mail me back new ones. This is going to cost me 3 weeks (priceless) and a chassis that does not pull out of a rack at the end of the day and its cost is rising...

 

Thoughts / Suggestions?