Hi everyone,
I have a pair of Norco 4224 chassis that I bought back in Dec 2015 to use as DAS units. At the same time, I purchased the RL-26 rails that supposedly go with it.
One thing has always bothered me about them, though - the rails line up right in 1U of rack space, but the chassis themselves are off by maybe 1/4" inch, so I have to sacrifice 1U of space above and below them to fit them in my rack. I have a 42U rack, so it was never a big deal, but now I'm trying to consolidate my rack a bit (and am even thinking about downsizing to a half rack), and now this space is needed.
Photos:
Rail alignment:
Chassis alignment:
From what I can tell, there were actually two versions of the RL26 rails - the ones I have, and one that are more like SuperMicro or Dell rails that just clip into square-hole racks. And apparently Norco was notorious for tweaking things about their various cases without really making note of it (unlike, say, SuperMicro, who has like 5 revisions of the equivalent 846 case), so it wouldn't surprise me if my rails were made for an older revision of the 4224 or something like that.
Does anyone have any idea why this is happening and what I could do about it? It'd be nice if someone knew of any aftermarket rails I could get that would work (I've found a few on eBay and Amazon that claim compatibility, but the alignment question is still there until I could try them myself. But I'm also not above just taking the rails off the chassis and drilling new mounting holes that are offset by the appropriate amount if that's the best option for this discontinued case from a defunct manufacturer...
I have a pair of Norco 4224 chassis that I bought back in Dec 2015 to use as DAS units. At the same time, I purchased the RL-26 rails that supposedly go with it.
One thing has always bothered me about them, though - the rails line up right in 1U of rack space, but the chassis themselves are off by maybe 1/4" inch, so I have to sacrifice 1U of space above and below them to fit them in my rack. I have a 42U rack, so it was never a big deal, but now I'm trying to consolidate my rack a bit (and am even thinking about downsizing to a half rack), and now this space is needed.
Photos:
Rail alignment:
Chassis alignment:
From what I can tell, there were actually two versions of the RL26 rails - the ones I have, and one that are more like SuperMicro or Dell rails that just clip into square-hole racks. And apparently Norco was notorious for tweaking things about their various cases without really making note of it (unlike, say, SuperMicro, who has like 5 revisions of the equivalent 846 case), so it wouldn't surprise me if my rails were made for an older revision of the 4224 or something like that.
Does anyone have any idea why this is happening and what I could do about it? It'd be nice if someone knew of any aftermarket rails I could get that would work (I've found a few on eBay and Amazon that claim compatibility, but the alignment question is still there until I could try them myself. But I'm also not above just taking the rails off the chassis and drilling new mounting holes that are offset by the appropriate amount if that's the best option for this discontinued case from a defunct manufacturer...