Server Chassis Hiccups Repair or Replace?

[Wronglebowski]

Hey all, looking for some advice on my FreeNAS build. I've got a random 3U no-name chassis with zero identification. The nearest I can tell is it's a NORCO RPC-3216. I'm having a few issues with it.

https://www.missingremote.com/review/2018/04/norco-rpc-3216-3u-16-bay-hot-swap-server-chassis

1. I believe one of my HBA's died. I'm getting "IOC in unexpected reset state" on each boot when a particular card is installed. Seems likely it's a dead card. I'd just replace it but.....
2. At least one of the backplanes are acting up, maybe two. I've moved around power, SAS cables, known good HBAs and I can't get drives to be reliably detected in the bottom rows.

I think this means this chassis is basically useless. I've tried to research the backplane but I get nowhere. I'm not familiar with them or how I'd even replace one or all?

So do I try and find a replacement card and order a new PCIe HBA? Or do I just move to a whole new chassis?

If the latter I'm looking for recommendations for a 3U Chassis that can hold at least 16x 3.5 inch drives.

 

[sretalla]

If you confirmed the backplane has dead parts and you can't find replacement backplane boards, then the chassis starts to seem far less useful.

I would turf it out if I were you and then diagnose your HBA problems separately with a new (presumably good) setup.

 

[jgreco]

Hey all, looking for some advice on my FreeNAS build. I've got a random 3U no-name chassis with zero identification. The nearest I can tell is it's a NORCO RPC-3216. I'm having a few issues with it.

https://www.missingremote.com/review/2018/04/norco-rpc-3216-3u-16-bay-hot-swap-server-chassis

1. I believe one of my HBA's died. I'm getting "IOC in unexpected reset state" on each boot when a particular card is installed. Seems likely it's a dead card. I'd just replace it but.....
2. At least one of the backplanes are acting up, maybe two. I've moved around power, SAS cables, known good HBAs and I can't get drives to be reliably detected in the bottom rows.

I think this means this chassis is basically useless. I've tried to research the backplane but I get nowhere. I'm not familiar with them or how I'd even replace one or all?

So do I try and find a replacement card and order a new PCIe HBA? Or do I just move to a whole new chassis?

If the latter I'm looking for recommendations for a 3U Chassis that can hold at least 16x 3.5 inch drives.

The Norcos are low quality stuff. Talk to a Norco distributor to see if you can get the backplane as an individual spare part, be prepared to spend a ridiculous amount on it. In my experience, companies like Norco that sell bottom-tier kit are manufacturing, assembling, and boxing their kit in Asia and then shipping it to the US. This allows them to offer the lowest cost for a ready-to-go chassis. The problem with this is that it means that there may not be a location in the US that has a supply of spare parts, so they may need to end up special ordering it from Asia, which incurs a lot of extra cost because of all the special handling involved. I've also seen distributors parts up a chassis here in the US and sell bits off it at a premium rate. Obviously they only want to do this if they can sell enough parts off it to make up for the expense.