Is there a way to make Supermicro JBOD enclosures power on/off with the main server?
- Thread starter dba
- Start date
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The fans will run at whatever you set them to in the BMC. Depending on your motherboard there may be multiple profiles available and you mau even be able to use the IPMI RAW commands for even more fine grained control.
Note: RAW commands do not work with the X9 boards.
1 more question, do the mounting holes of the X9SPU-F board you used line up with standard ATX stand off locations? I know it's not a standard ATX board and has the "UIO" format with the PCI riser, etc., but just wondering if the holes line up...
Yup. Standard hole mounting. It's what Supermicro calls "Baby AT". It's 8"x 13" and 6 of the seven holes holes are standard. The seventh hole is present only in a UIO compatible chassis, like a 113, 116 216 etc. The 846/847 will not have this hole.
But you don't really need it, we're using the board as a glorified fan controller.
... that is of relatively low value in the used market, fits ATX mounting stand offs, ...
Of course not, I bought them all...
Kidding, I did buy a few when the ebay seller "minostechnology" was liquidating them at fire sale prices. You gotta keep an eye out.
I know that the X9SRH-F can do this as well at the very least. I suspect almost any Supermicro motherboard X9 series or better can do this. The BMC is completely out of band, and as long as the board has power, the BMC will work. Since the BMC controls the fans (in X9 or better), the fans will work without CPU/RAM.
Anything less than X9 probably won't work as the BMC does not control the fans in those. (As far as I know). X10 or better will work even better as they support RAW IPMI commands, but they are too expensive at present, might as well get the JBOD power board.Question is what is the lowest recommendable level to look for - x7/8/9 ?
After I saw your comment, I bought the board to try it out and I have some questions regarding IPMI View
1/ Should we see fans' speed under "Sensor" tab? I got zeroes for all 5 fans although I have 3 fans plugged in
2/ All my "Voltages" meters show zeroes.
3/ Only "PSU" displays complete info
4/ Under "IMPI Device", there is a section for fan speed control but it's ineffective. I guess it's because no fan was detected.
5/ I can Power Down/Up/Cycle/Reset but not "Graceful Shutdown"
The same thing happens when using webGUI. I think either I'm missing something very basic here. No CPU or RAM in the system btw
Thanks
Edit:the board is X9SPU-F
I was....wrong. It doesn't work...atleast not the way I was expecting.
It does turn on the chassis with the Power button and the fans do run, but they run at a constant speed, which I think is the defaut BMC mode, whatever it was. Changing the fan profile through IPMI has no effect.
There was some confusion with IP addresses and the IPMI system that I was monitoring, vs the chassis....
I'm....embarrased.
It does turn on the chassis with the Power button and the fans do run, but they run at a constant speed, which I think is the defaut BMC mode, whatever it was. Changing the fan profile through IPMI has no effect.
There was some confusion with IP addresses and the IPMI system that I was monitoring, vs the chassis....
I'm....embarrased.
:-( ... i ordered that mobo based on your comment... it was so cheap, cost of returning it would mostly negate it's value. oh well... i guess it could still work as a "dumb" JBOD board... maybe I can add a fan controller between the board and the fans?I was....wrong. It doesn't work...atleast not the way I was expecting.
It does turn on the chassis with the Power button and the fans do run, but they run at a constant speed, which I think is the defaut BMC mode, whatever it was. Changing the fan profile through IPMI has no effect.
There was some confusion with IP addresses and the IPMI system that I was monitoring, vs the chassis....
I'm....embarrased.
Kinda defeats the purpose but guess time to add a $10 ivy bridge cpu and a stick of RAM. Still cheaper than the SM JBOD3 board by a wide margin though.
My apologies. Seriously, I did not mean to mislead anybody. If you don't want it, I'll buy it from you.
That said, give it a shot. The default BMC fan speed is fairly low, you may find it ok. You won't get any metrics (speed, voltages etc), but you still get power control theough the front panel switch and IPMI and "somewhat" of fan control.
While that'll work (You can buy Celeron 1610T for $10 on ebay), the problem is if you don't boot it to "something", the board will consume too much power. A small linux distro should be enough though, which will let EIST/C states/P states kick in.
No apology needed
I know there was no ill intent and for the occasional mishap, I get a lot of very helpful info from yourself and other members here at STH.since we're both sitting on some X9SPU-F boards, maybe it's time to consider reverse engineering the IPMI firmware on these to regain more control. (just thinking about the iDracula story from last month...) ;-)