  The accuracy of dielectronic recombination (DR) data for astrophysics related
ions plays a key role in astrophysical plasma modeling. The measurement of the
absolute DR rate coefficient of Fe17+ ions was performed at the main cooler
storage ring at Institute of Modern Physics, Lanzhou, China. The experimental
electron-ion collision energy range covers first Rydberg series up to n = 24
for the DR resonances associated with the 2P1/2--2P3/2 dn = 0 core excitations.
A theoretical calculation was performed by using FAC code and compared with the
measured DR rate coefficient. Overall reasonable agreement was found between
the experimental results and calculations. Moreover, plasma rate coefficient
was deduced from the experimental DR rate coefficient and compared with the
available results from the literature. At the low energy range significant
discrepancies were found therein and the measured resonances challenged
state-of-the-art theory at the low collision energies.
