Norco Storage Products thread

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cavediver

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Dec 31, 2010
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The two pics of the back of the 4U case are each different. What is the difference between the two boxes?
 

odditory

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Dec 23, 2010
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As mentioned in the previous post, both the 12-bay and 24-bay models EACH come with or without an integrated SAS2 expander. The one without the integrated SAS2 expander has SFF-8088 connectors that run straight to the backplane.

BTW good to see you here cavediver! Still rocking your 120mm brackets in my 4220's!
 
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cavediver

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Dec 31, 2010
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As mentioned in the previous post, both the 12-bay and 24-bay models EACH come with or without an integrated SAS2 expander. The one without the integrated SAS2 expander has SFF-8088 connectors that run straight to the backplane.

BTW good to see you here cavediver! Still rocking your 120mm brackets in my 4220's!
Thanks for the info. I'm glad the 120mm fan brackets are working out for you. I'm also glad Norco finally started offering them, but I can't for the life of me figure out how they can sell them so cheap. The metal alone costs more here than they're selling them for.
 

iceboi714

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Feb 27, 2011
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Man...As nice as it would be...I still need to fill up my 4220 (with cavediver 120mm fan brackets). I just swapped everything over this weekend but no room so it is under my bed. I even bought an extra fan bracket only to find out the 4224 came out months later. Oh well it works great.

Edit
Looking at the prices over there is a big difference between with a expander vs without. Too bad there isn't a model where we can put in our own expander.
 
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matt_garman

Active Member
Feb 7, 2011
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I made a comment on the Mid-range DIY Storage Server Buyer's Guide about the Norco 4020 drive caddies being kind of flimsy. Patrick replied that the caddies on the 4220 are much more robust.

I was wondering if Patrick, or anyone else, can expand on this a bit more? I am thinking about buying another 4U server chassis, and am would like more detail on what I could expect in terms of build quality improvements in the 4020 vs the 4220.

I also noted that we have a Supermicro SC846 chassis at work, and those drive trays aren't exactly rugged. The latch mechanism feels pretty robust, but the "flanges" that you actually attach the drive to are kind of weak. I really expected more from such an expensive chassis.

The best drive trays I've seen are on the Supermicro CSE-M35T "5-in-3" enclosure.
 

itdcole

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Aug 3, 2011
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One question I have is that I currently have a Dell 1950 SRV with Win 2k3 on it. Attached to it is a Dell MD1000 15 bay storage enclosure through a Dell Perc 5/e.

To put it truthfully, I'm out of space. And I'm wanting to upgrade it, but the MD1000 are 3,000 without hard drives.

And so I saw the article about a DAS with Norco JBOD system.
My question(s) are this:
If I got the appropriate cable, would the newest versions of the Norco DS-24's work with my Dell Perc 5/e card?
And is there anything I need to add to the inside of the Norco to make it work? Ex. Motherboard, sas card, etc? Thanks.

Norco Enclosure I'm looking at.
DELL PERC 5/E
 

zicoz

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Jan 7, 2011
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The DS-24D has 6 external SAS ports, does anyone know if these are all "in" or are 3 "in" and 3 "out"?
 

odditory

Moderator
Dec 23, 2010
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It's 6-in, there's no integrated expander in that moddle, each connector is simply a passthrough to each of 6 backplane boards (one per row of drives). Not a very efficient design, quite honestly, the need for 6 x SFF-8088 cables to connect to it fully from another chassis.

Easier and more efficient would be to DIY a DS-24D by getting a Norco RPC-4224, Intel 36port expander, ATX JBOD powerboard (Supermicro, etc) and PSU.
 

nfinitone

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Dec 7, 2012
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Easier and more efficient would be to DIY a DS-24D by getting a Norco RPC-4224, Intel 36port expander, ATX JBOD powerboard (Supermicro, etc) and PSU.
I have the following setup and I can't seem to find the most cost-effective way to expand my home storage capability. Should I buy the DS-24D or the RPC-4224?

CURRENT:
Phineas
ESXi 5.1 Server
HP ProLiant DL360 G7 1U server
300GB SAS drives x 8
48GB RAM

Ferb
FreeNAS 8.3 Server
Dell Precision 390 tower
2TB SATA x 3
1TB SATA x 4
8GB RAM
iSCSI & NFS datastores, media server, PC backups

Because Phineas is more powerful and has more RAM, I want to add the HP SAS Expander and passthru the p410i controller to a FreeNAS VM. I will attach 2 expander ports to the internal SAS drives and the remaining 4 to a Norco case. This FreeNAS VM will hold all datastores, media shares, and PC backups, etc.

Phineas will then replicate to Ferb via iSCSI. Since it is only for backups, performance is not an issue as much as capacity.

If I use the Norco RPC-4224 I'll need to buy:
6 mini-SAS cables (internal)
4 mini-SAS cables (external)
Power Supply
120mm fan wall
120mm fans​
(I could also move Ferb's hardware inside the Norco and direct attach the remaining 8 drives. However, the Dell motherboard is BTX and I'll need all new hardware)

If I use the Norco DS-24D I'll need to buy:
4 mini-SAS cables (external)

I now have 15 1TB drives and nowhere to put them. The DS-24D looks like the cheaper, no-hassle choice on the surface. A deal breaker may be the loudness of the 3 80mm fans in my home setup.
The RPC-4224 has space for a motherboard and I like the idea of moving Ferb to the Norco in the future. This will eliminate an entire case in my rack which is attractive, but not necessary. But having to purchase so many additional pieces to get me up and running doesn't sit well.

Sorry for the lengthy post. I've been a fan of this site for a long time and I like the builds other users have done. I guess I'm asking if you had my stuff, where would you go with it? What would you choose?
 

rmflint

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Dec 12, 2017
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It's 6-in, there's no integrated expander in that moddle, each connector is simply a passthrough to each of 6 backplane boards (one per row of drives). Not a very efficient design, quite honestly, the need for 6 x SFF-8088 cables to connect to it fully from another chassis.

Easier and more efficient would be to DIY a DS-24D by getting a Norco RPC-4224, Intel 36port expander, ATX JBOD powerboard (Supermicro, etc) and PSU.
I am trying to build a 16 drive JBOD nas enclosure to connect to my dell R620 Proxmox (zfs) server for home use. It seems impossible to find any clear cut detailed solution! Oditory, can you explain why I would need the intel port expander with either the Norco dc-12 or rpc-4216 enclosures? I thought both already have expanders. My LSI sas card in my server only has one external 8088 and I would prefer not have to buy a new dual port sas card and not sacrafice my remaining pci slot.
 

pricklypunter

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Nov 10, 2015
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can you explain why I would need the intel port expander with either the Norco dc-12 or rpc-4216 enclosures? I thought both already have expanders.
Both of those Norco chassis have Backplane boards fitted, they both handle the Hotswap function/ power/ LED control. Neither of them, however, have Expander's built in. They are "Direct Connect", i.e, your 8088/ 8087 is broken out internally, on the Backplane, back into 4 lanes, just as if you had used a forward facing breakout cable :)
 

rmflint

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Dec 12, 2017
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Both of those Norco chassis have Backplane boards fitted, they both handle the Hotswap function/ power/ LED control. Neither of them, however, have Expander's built in. They are "Direct Connect", i.e, your 8088/ 8087 is broken out internally, on the Backplane, back into 4 lanes, just as if you had used a forward facing breakout cable :)
Thank you for clarifying! Is there any other advantage besides a cleaner connection when adding an expander, I.e. Intel expander mentioned previously? I already have a Supermicro powerboard but since I only want to build JBOD disk array I do not plan on installing any kind of motherboard with PCIe slots.
 

pricklypunter

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Nov 10, 2015
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Advantages are "one to many" ports. Think of it as a network switch, but designed for SAS/ SATA devices. So a single port from your little HBA can effectively drive many more, as those 4 lanes are split and used through the magic that is the "expander chip". Of course that also means that all of the downstream devices are now sharing the available bandwidth across those 4 lanes, or however many you have supplied from your HBA. For spinning disks, it's unlikely to ever really be a problem for you, for SSD's/ Flash tier however, it might become a bottle neck if there's not enough Lanes aka Bandwidth available.

I don't know which Intel card was discussed earlier, but the Intel RES2SV240 for example, has both PCI-e and a Molex connector onboard that can be used for powering the card, so no requirement for a Mainboard. Only cards without the ability to be powered from an external source, i.e those with only a PCI-e connector would require either a Mainboard or powered riser of some kind. With the card I mentioned you lose a port, obviously, as you have to connect it to your HBA, but the other ports are available to you to use as you wish, therefore out of a possible 24 expanded ports, you lose 4 to your HBA, assuming a single connection, leaving 20 remaining for your disks.

Often the challenge is actually mounting the damned thing, a lot of these expander cards don't have mounting holes that you can use, so a bit of ingenuity is required :)