HP DL180 G6

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mattlach

Active Member
Aug 1, 2014
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You'll definitely need something to fake the RPM sensor. If the BIOS fan control software is trying to get the fans running at 10,000RPM and the sensor comes back slower it will raise fan fail alarms. If it gets multiple fan fail alarms it will shut down.
Luckily for me, this appears to not be the case.

The DL180 G6 appears to accept any fan RPM (above a certain lower threshold) as "within normal range" regardless of what duty cycle it is currently requesting from the fans via PWM.

Right now, I have replaced the 8 sunon fans with 4 Delta 60mm 6800rpm fans. While on paper they are much quieter than the stock fans, they still are very loud (this 2U case must act as a reverberation chamber!) Temporarily I have swapped the 12v and 5v power lines cutting their speed to about 2500rpm, which is audibly tolerable for basement use (in other words, I can no longer hear it upstairs), and the server is not complaining about fan failure.

To make up for this lower fan speed I have zip-tied two smaller fans directly to the heatsinks like in a traditional client HSF. it's still a little close for comfort, since when loading all the cores up using prime95, core temps reached 61C in a 78F basement, without installed hard drives. Once I add my drives, and the basement temp goes up on hotter days this may be a problem, so I have ordered a fan rheostat to be able to increase the fan speed a little without going full on 12v and making it audible upstairs again.

When I reach a final setup that works, I will post pictures!
 

mattlach

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Aug 1, 2014
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At some point in this latest step, my IPMI management port stopped responding to network requests. Don't know what happened or why, but it still appears to be working internally, as the BIOS can still read fan RPM's and temperatures, and it still detects fan failures when I disconnect RPM signals. Hoping it is not related. May try reseating the dedicated management port module
Turns out this was just a bad ethernet cable (phew, scared me)
 

mattlach

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Aug 1, 2014
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Hi, it shows
PHY Transfer Rate: 3.0Gbps
Thank you, that is a relief.

I had read somewhere that HP had reduced the speed to deal with stability issues with their 410 RAID controllers, and I was worried I'd see terrible backplane performance.

At 3.0Gbps, and 4 ports per SFF8087 connector, thats 12Gbps shared over the entire backplane, so 1 Gbps, or 128MB/s per drive. That ought to be sufficient!
 

zoroyoshi

New Member
Dec 10, 2013
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DL180G6 12LFF expander board uses VSC7155, that can be up to 3.0Gbps per lane.
(but I'm using 8LFF board with 12LFF cage, cuz the 12LFF board covers air intake, causes high CPU temp...)
 

mattlach

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Aug 1, 2014
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DL180G6 12LFF expander board uses VSC7155, that can be up to 3.0Gbps per lane.
(but I'm using 8LFF board with 12LFF cage, cuz the 12LFF board covers air intake, causes high CPU temp...)
Yeah, but I had read that HP had crippled it in firmware. Apparently that isn't true, which is good! :)

Unfortunately I need all 12 drive bays, so I hope it doesn't run too hot. What do you consider too hot in these? I loaded up all 24 threads using prime95, and the core temp hit 60C at max after my fan mod. I may need to work a little bit more on the fans to get that temp down just a bit more...
 

Marsh

Moderator
May 12, 2013
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60C is fine under Prime95 load.
What is temperature of the CPU furthest away from the fans?
My experience is there is may be up to 10C degree difference between the two cpus.
 

zoroyoshi

New Member
Dec 10, 2013
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I'm running WCG(11 threads) on my DL180G6 w/dual X5650(no hyper-threading), fan speed 4200-4700 rpm, 63C max by coretemp.
When I used 12LFF expander board, over 70C in my memory.
 

mattlach

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Aug 1, 2014
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60C is fine under Prime95 load.
Yeah, since I posted this, I ahve found that CoreTemp reports the TjMax of the L5640's as 79C, so I feel I ahve a good safety margin (even though I am not sure how much heat 12 low power 5400rpm SATA drives will add, cant test with them as they are currently in use)



What is temperature of the CPU furthest away from the fans?
My experience is there is may be up to 10C degree difference between the two cpus.

I have noticed this as well, but never has much as 10C, only about 5 or 6.

I made a little custom mod to help deal with this (well, originally made it to help make up for the weaker quieter fans I replaced the SUNON monstrosities with, but it turns out they help equalize the difference between the sockets as well:

Click for Bigger:


I replaced the 8 original fans with these 60mm Delta's powering them off the 5V line instead of the 12V line for lower fan speed (quieter operation) and then twist tied a set of these thin 60mm fans directly to the heatsinks (blowing in the same direction) to help make up for the lower airflow. The duct still fits nicely ontop of them.

It seems to be working fairly well. No more Airbus A380 in my basement. I was worried about the 60C temp reading, until I came across the 79C max from coretemp. I have also ordered a rheostat to adjust the main fans up a little bit (without going full speed) if it winds up being needed.
 
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mattlach

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Aug 1, 2014
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I'm running WCG(11 threads) on my DL180G6 w/dual X5650(no hyper-threading), fan speed 4200-4700 rpm, 63C max by coretemp.
When I used 12LFF expander board, over 70C in my memory.
Was that with or without drives in the bays?
 

mattlach

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Aug 1, 2014
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10 drives in bays. Lower 8 Drives to P410, Upper 2 side bays are for boot-drives (direct cable), upper middle 2 bays are empty for air intake.
Ahh,

My plan is to use 12 low power 5400rpom drives in the drive bays (ZFS Pool with two six drive RAIDz2 vdevs). On top of that I plan on using double sided tape to attach three 2.5" SSD's on the left wall of the case, one as a boot drive and datastore for VMWare ESXi, and the other two as a mirrored pair for a SLOG for my ZIL for the 12 drives.

According to my calculations it's going to be close with the 460W PSU, especially since for some crazy reason this expander/backplane doesn't appear to do staggered spinup. I may have to order a 750W unit.
 

mattlach

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Aug 1, 2014
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Do your drives run hot?

I set up my new ZFS volume with 12 spinners (5400rpm WD RED Drives) and 2 SSD's (2x 6 drive RAIDz2 VDEVs plus a mirrored SLOG for ZIL)

According to smart all the drives attached to the backplane are running rather hot, ranging from 58C to 65C during no/light load :O

Not surprising that they would be warm, it is rather tight in there, but this is higher than I expected!

Is this just how they are? Do I need to be worrying about the health of my drives?
 

zoroyoshi

New Member
Dec 10, 2013
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My drives(GB1000EAMYC) are 35-43C (max:53C) reported by ACU.
WD red series max temp is 70C... I'm afraid that your hdd temps are too high.
 

mattlach

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Aug 1, 2014
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My drives(GB1000EAMYC) are 35-43C (max:53C) reported by ACU.
WD red series max temp is 70C... I'm afraid that your hdd temps are too high.
Yeah, I figured as much.

Unfortunately i fear this DL180 G6 just isn't the right server for me.

I'm going to cannibalize it for CPUs and RAM. have ordered a dual socket SuperMicro board and a Norco case to replace it.

Might try to eBay it off as a barebones system and cut my losses...
 

iwik

New Member
May 28, 2013
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Hi,
I also had problems with fan speed. I solved it with latest bios (020, release date 01/01/2013) and bmc/ilo firmware (4.23). Also it is important to have disks with temperature sensors. Many SSD are missing temperature sensors. If disk temperature is not available, fans will run at full speed.
 

Chris Beasley

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Jun 5, 2015
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It seems to be working fairly well. No more Airbus A380 in my basement. I was worried about the 60C temp reading, until I came across the 79C max from coretemp. I have also ordered a rheostat to adjust the main fans up a little bit (without going full speed) if it winds up being needed.
Sorry, I'm going to necro this thread. Does the system require all eight fans to be 'connected' for it not to panic? If so, I presume you could wire as a 2 to 1 (2 pwm connections to 1 fan)? Does the system not care what the fans are doing as along as they're spinning above the threshold (what is the lower threshold?)

Do you have to use PWM fans, or could you use normal 3 pin steady spin fans in place and wire the sensor in there by ensuring the system has enough airflow for your needs but without the stupid high pitch whine and noise?

I'm after a replacement for my old PE2950 with fan mods and I can't afford the Dell prices in NZ but these older HPs are dirt cheap...

Thanks,

Chris
 

mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
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IIRC the DL180 G6 was originally a storage chassis for MSA - which they shoved cpu's into which is why they run so hot!
 

darmach

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Oct 5, 2016
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Yeah, since I posted this, I ahve found that CoreTemp reports the TjMax of the L5640's as 79C, so I feel I ahve a good safety margin (even though I am not sure how much heat 12 low power 5400rpm SATA drives will add, cant test with them as they are currently in use)
....
It seems to be working fairly well. No more Airbus A380 in my basement. I was worried about the 60C temp reading, until I came across the 79C max from coretemp. I have also ordered a rheostat to adjust the main fans up a little bit (without going full speed) if it winds up being needed.
Sorry for necroing such an old thread - I just ordered one of these really cheap, but with one PSU. Do you guys had both PSUs in/online? I had read somewhere that they might run very loud when only one psu is present. Is that correct?

Are you aware of which is quieter - DL180 G6 or DL160 G6 (The thinny, 1u)?