I bought a Supermicro motherboard for my server build and it's awesome. I'd recommend updating to the latest BIOS each time they're released - even if they always suggest you shouldn't unless somethings broken. My experience with the X11SPM-TF has been that the BIOS updates have made life much, much easier. A few things in general, with the caveat that they may only affect the Xeon scalable motherboards.
BMC Update:
- Try setting boot to use UEFI, newer OS's should fully support this - if you do then disable CSM mode from the BIOS (edit: CSM was found in my security settings for some reason, took me a while to find)
- As others have said try cards in different slots
- If you don't need the full bandwidth of the slot, try changing it in BIOS as that could help
- The "option ROM" items in the BIOS can cause problems sometimes, disable these as needed - but NOT the video one
- Update the BMC firmware as well it's separate from the BIOS firmware
- When updating BIOS / BMC firmware ALWAYS reset them to stock yourself, save, reboot as that helps ensure they're properly setup
- Note that the BMC fimrware won't keep track of your serial number etc in the hardware page as you need to not delete a certain part when loading a new BMC but I chose to delete it as well to make sure it worked correctly
- When creating install media for UEFI mode always choose GPT and DD mode not ISO mode as this doesn't always work when booting
- The slow startup you're seeing is the CPU startup, you may see a number in the bottom right being cycled through and this is the step of booting, note that AD means it's ready for the OS to load - you can also search for AMI POST codes to have an idea of what they're doing
- If you don't have another computer in the house then the usefulness of the BMC is limited, but it's saved me a number of times being able to use everything remotely, so before you put away the workstation you may want to make a plan for what you need to do to use the BMC remotely
BMC Update:
- Update BMC
- Reset to Factory settings
- Reset BMC
- Change fan thresholds
- Shutdown server
- Reset BMC
- Boot server
Code:
Noctua NF-A9X14-PWM
Rotational speed (+/- 10%)
2200 RPM
ipmitool sensor thresh "*sensor name*" upper *unc* *ucr* *unr*
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN1" upper 2100 2200 2400
Min. rotational speed (PWM, +/-20%)
500 RPM
ipmitool sensor thresh "*sensor name*" lower *lnr* *lcr* *lnc*
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN1" lower 400 500 600
Noctua NF-S12A PWM
Rotational speed (+/- 10%)
1200 1200 1300
ipmitool sensor thresh "*sensor name*" upper *unc* *ucr* *unr*
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN2" upper 1200 1200 1300
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN3" upper 1200 1200 1300
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN4" upper 1200 1200 1300
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN5" upper 1200 1200 1300
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN6" upper 1200 1200 1300
Min. rotational speed (PWM, +/-20%)
300 300 200
ipmitool sensor thresh "*sensor name*" lower *lnr* *lcr* *lnc*
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN2" lower 200 300 300
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN3" lower 200 300 300
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN4" lower 200 300 300
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN5" lower 200 300 300
ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN6" lower 200 300 300
NF-A14 PWM
Rotational speed (+/- 10%)
1500 1500 1650
ipmitool sensor thresh "*sensor name*" upper *unc* *ucr* *unr*
ipmitool sensor thresh "FANA" upper 1500 1500 1650
ipmitool sensor thresh "FANB" upper 1500 1500 1650
Min. rotational speed (PWM, +/-20%)
300 300 200
ipmitool sensor thresh "*sensor name*" lower *lnr* *lcr* *lnc*
ipmitool sensor thresh "FANA" lower 200 300 300
ipmitool sensor thresh "FANB" lower 200 300 300
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