Dell C6220 Gen1 Nodes in a C6220 Gen2 Chassis

[jfoor]

Recently purchased a C6220 I chassis but when it arrived it turned out to be a C6220 II chassis..at least that's what listed when I found the Dell "refurbished service tag." It looks like a gen 1 case with 100% gen II internals. Apart from the outside of the case this thing is brand new. Looks like it's never seen the inside of a rack..ever.

I had also ordered two gen 1 nodes and I would prefer to keep them as I felt like I got a good deal for the pair. However, the gen 1 nodes ONLY show an amber light at the front of case power button and the fans run @ 16K 100% of the time. I'm writing this at the other side of my house from my server room and I can hear it. The gen 1 nodes "work" in the gen 2 chassis, I've successfully installed various OSs to test but the damn fans are so loud I cannot be in the server room for any extended period of time. I would prefer to keep the gen 2 chassis because the damn thing is brand new, plus the gen 2 would allow for gen 2 nodes in the future and that means E5-2600 V2 CPUs.

Things I have tried to get the fans to slow down:
-Updated BIOS to latest
-Updated BMC to latest
-Updated FCB to latest
-Tried IPMIUTIL from Windows to lower fan thresholds
-Tried IMPITOOL from Debian to lower fan thresholds
-Booted into Debian on the off chance the sensors were recognized by the fancontrol and pwmconfig packages and I could adjust them via software

I initially thought I didn't have the right syntax for the IPMI utils but then I checked the BMC site on the node and they've correctly set the speeds I had intended..it's just the fans are listed as "Critical" I'm assuming b/c of the mismatched nodes/chassis.

Anyone have additional ideas before I return this gen 2 chassis to the seller? The only other ideas I had were a pwm fan control device inside the chassis but I don't want to do anything janky, I want to have a "real" fix from the beginning before I start migrating VMs and such.

Sorry so long, let me know if anyone has any ideas. Thank you ahead of time.

 

[jfoor]

Been messing with this for damn near 24hrs..then I post asking for help and it fixes itself..

Okay, I just got it working. The front bezel power button/light is still amber but who cares. The fans have slowed down.

After updating the BIOS/BMC/FCB I logged into the IPMI to check the sensor status and they were still listed as "Critical" but where there had been a red X on the under the Status column there's not a green check mark. Also it had not occurred to me that maybe the chassis was also checking the 2nd node's settings, BIOS etc. I pulled out the 2nd node, which has been powered off since I installed it and the fans slowed down instantly.

Going to flash node 2 with all the things and then use an IPMI tool to set a proper threshold. I'm just happy to know that gen 1 nodes work in a gen 2 chassis.

 

[jfoor]

And now after ejecting the nodes and restarting both the amber front light have turned green. All is well.

I realize this thread is me responding to myself...twice.. so please delete it unless someone else would find this info helpful.