Using IPMI tool on X10 SuperMicro board - fan speed

[thecoffeeguy]

Hey everyone.
I know this question has been asked before and I found this reference material here:

Reference Material - Supermicro X9/X10/X11 Fan Speed Control

My problem summary:
setup a new server and replaced the heatsink on my CPU with a Noctua (narrow ILM) heatsink to reduce fan noise. The original heatsink was to loud and was driving me crazy.

The new heatsink is nice (barely fits in my 3U case) but the fans(two of them) are spinning at 1700rpm and I would like to drop this down to be a tad quieter.

My question is how do i properly set my fan speeds?
I downloaded IPMITOOL to my mac and can talk to my mobo no problem. I can pull back the data. In fact here is some info on my sensor:

ipmitool -H <ip_address> -U <username> -P <password> sensor
FAN1             | 0.000      | RPM        | nr    | 300.000   | 500.000   | 700.000   | 25300.000 | 25400.000 | 25500.000
FAN2             | 1700.000   | RPM        | ok    | 300.000   | 500.000   | 700.000   | 25300.000 | 25400.000 | 25500.000
FAN3             | 0.000      | RPM        | nr    | 300.000   | 500.000   | 700.000   | 25300.000 | 25400.000 | 25500.000
FAN4             | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
FAN5             | 1700.000   | RPM        | ok    | 300.000   | 500.000   | 700.000   | 25300.000 | 25400.000 | 25500.000

Where i was stuck was how to change fans 2 and 5 to lower RPMs?

I also found this by googling about setting up thresh holds as well. Is this the recommended/best practices approach?

IPMI Fan Sensors

Thanks for the clarification.

Cheers,

TCG

 

[K D]

See this post on how to set the fan thresholds.

Noctua case fans on Xeon-SP Tower Server

 

[thecoffeeguy]

See this post on how to set the fan thresholds.

Noctua case fans on Xeon-SP Tower Server

Awesome. I was just looking at a very similar command on setting those thresh holds.
In regards to the fan speeds, the specifications have the following:

Max Rotational speed: 1600 RPM
Max Rotational speed: 1300 RPM (with LNA)
Min Rotational speed: 300 RPM

Based on that, the output of 'ipmitool' says they are both spinning at 1700RPM, I was thinking of cutting it in half and seeing how that goes.

Would the command be to set my fans the following:

ipmitool sensor thresh FAN2 lower 300 500 700
ipmitool sensor thresh FAN5 lower 300 500 700

Assuming that will set the min fan RPM speed to 300, max 700?

APpreciate the help. Crash course on the ipmitool for me today.

EDIT: Actually, not sure if that will work looking at the output here:

FAN2             | 1700.000   | RPM        | ok    | 300.000   | 500.000   | 700.000   | 25300.000 | 25400.000 | 25500.000

The way I read that, 300, 500, and 700 are the LOWER threshholds?
25300, 25400, 25500 are the upper threshholds?

If so, curious as to why they are spinning at 1700RPM...
do i need to drop the lower even further? ( i have yet to change any fan settings just a FYI)

THx



****
I thought i would post a quick update and some more info since i have been tinkering with this today.

I did a lot of testing (using the resource linked above) as well as more reading. What i am seeing is that when i issue a command to lower the speed, i can actually hear the fan spin down, but then it immediately spins right back up. It always stays at 1700RPM.
So, for whatever reason, when i issue commands (RAW to set speed to 50% or 25%) it appears to work in a quick sec, but spins right back up.

I went back and did more reading on my side. The two fans i am working to control on are connected to the CPU heatsink (Noctua PWM fans). Right now, i have them plugged into FANA as a 'zone'. SHould that still work or should I plug them into FAN1 and FAN2?

Feel closer, but not sure why my changes are not setting the fan speeds to a lower RPM.

 

[K D]

You need to set the fan profile to Full Speed of you are using raw commands to control the speeds.

Also if you are updating the thresholds then make sure to reset the BMC

 

[thecoffeeguy]

You need to set the fan profile to Full Speed of you are using raw commands to control the speeds.

Also if you are updating the thresholds then make sure to reset the BMC

Ahh...that was it. I did like you said, rebooted and worked perfectly. (fan setting was set to optimal)
Now i can set the fanspeed through the IMPI tool.

Really appreciate it!

Thank you!

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Shameless bump but I had a question since I am revisiting this.

I am running into a weird issue where I can set the FANA speed to 400rpm, but after a reboot, it spins all the way back to 1700rpm (ideally, looking to set it to 800-900 RPM).

What i end up having to do is:
Go into the web panel for IPMI. Set the FAN mode to full and then reset the IPMI.
After the reboot, i connect in with IPMITOOL and run the following command:

ipmitool -H 192.168.1.220 -U user1 -P sneaky raw 0x30 0x70 0x66 0x01 0x01 0x16

That will set the FANA to 400rpm, but again, I lose it if i reboot (is that normal?)
Secondly, I am trying to find the RAW code to get that to spin down to 800-900RPM. I am trying to make this as silent as possible.

Here is the line output from IPMI tool when I do a sensor list:

FANA             | 400.000    | RPM        | nc    | 100.000   | 300.000   | 500.000   | 600.000   | 800.000   | 1000.000

Just looking for some clarification and help.
Much appreciated.

Cheers,

TCG

 

[K D]

I have seen this behavior too. But in the one box that I manually control the fan speed, i run a script based on one in the freenas forums that controls the speed of the fans based on drive temperature and that takes care of resetting the fan speeds after reboots.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

I have seen this behavior too. But in the one box that I manually control the fan speed, i run a script based on one in the freenas forums that controls the speed of the fans based on drive temperature and that takes care of resetting the fan speeds after reboots.

Hmm. i will have to find that script.
Also, i wanted to post the entire output of my sensor list, just for reference:

CPU Temp         | 36.000     | degrees C  | ok    | 0.000     | 0.000     | 0.000     | 79.000    | 84.000    | 84.000
PCH Temp         | 41.000     | degrees C  | ok    | 0.000     | 5.000     | 16.000    | 90.000    | 95.000    | 100.000
System Temp      | 30.000     | degrees C  | ok    | -10.000   | -5.000    | 0.000     | 80.000    | 85.000    | 90.000
Peripheral Temp  | 34.000     | degrees C  | ok    | -10.000   | -5.000    | 0.000     | 80.000    | 85.000    | 90.000
VcpuVRM Temp     | 42.000     | degrees C  | ok    | -5.000    | 0.000     | 5.000     | 95.000    | 100.000   | 105.000
VmemABVRM Temp   | 41.000     | degrees C  | ok    | -5.000    | 0.000     | 5.000     | 95.000    | 100.000   | 105.000
VmemCDVRM Temp   | 38.000     | degrees C  | ok    | -5.000    | 0.000     | 5.000     | 95.000    | 100.000   | 105.000
DIMMA1 Temp      | 33.000     | degrees C  | ok    | -5.000    | 0.000     | 5.000     | 80.000    | 85.000    | 90.000
DIMMA2 Temp      | 33.000     | degrees C  | ok    | -5.000    | 0.000     | 5.000     | 80.000    | 85.000    | 90.000
DIMMB1 Temp      | 36.000     | degrees C  | ok    | -5.000    | 0.000     | 5.000     | 80.000    | 85.000    | 90.000
DIMMB2 Temp      | 37.000     | degrees C  | ok    | -5.000    | 0.000     | 5.000     | 80.000    | 85.000    | 90.000
DIMMC1 Temp      | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
DIMMC2 Temp      | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
DIMMD1 Temp      | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
DIMMD2 Temp      | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
FAN1             | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
FAN2             | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
FAN3             | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
FAN4             | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
FAN5             | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
FANA             | 1700.000   | RPM        | nr    | 100.000   | 300.000   | 500.000   | 600.000   | 800.000   | 1000.000

I only have the FANA reporting back.
would that script help in my setup as well?

I am trying to minimize the noise i hear (i can be pretty anal about the noise I hear). I put all Noctua fans in the case.
Appreciate the help.

TCG

 

[K D]

https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...supermicro-40x56mm-1u-fans.17854/#post-171960

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

FANA             | 400.000    | RPM        | nc    | 100.000   | 300.000   | 500.000   | 600.000   | 800.000   | 1000.000

Aren't your upper fan thresholds set very low? Are you getting fan speed asserts in the IPMI log?

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Aren't your upper fan thresholds set very low? Are you getting fan speed asserts in the IPMI log?

Yea, i kinda thought they were (was tinkiner around)

I did check the log and do see warnings about "FANA", upper and lower critical (going high, going low)

I did a slight change to test:

FANA | 1700.000 | RPM | nr | 600.000 | 700.000 | 900.000 | 1500.000 | 1600.000 | 1700.000

any suggestions for speeds?

Thank you

EDIT: Just kind of weird. I cant seem to get the FANA speed to where i want, 800-900rpm. Tried all sorts of RAW combos, but no luck.
Starting to feel frustrated as i cant seem to figure out.
That challenging?
something i am missing?

Seems like I need to get the lower and upper in a specific range, to get the fan to spin to where i want?
BIOS update maybe?
::grumble::

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

I did check the log and do see warnings about "FANA", upper and lower critical (going high, going low)

any suggestions for speeds?

Depends on how important quietness is to you vs. how cool your enclosure is (and of course whatever the characteristics of the fans are). I set my upper criticals to those higher than my fans are capable of - so if your fan maxes out at say 2500rpm, set your upper crits to 2600, 2900, 3000, or something like that. That way the upper crits should never trigger except in the event of a serious malfunction that causes the speeds to be mis-reported.

Lower crits are more complicated but I'll generally set them slightly above the lowest fan speed you need to keep your case appreciably cool. For example if I've got fans that'll go as low as 300rpm, I might set the lower crit limits as 100, 200, 300. That way of the fans ever do speed down to 300rpm it'll throw a low non-crit assert.

Tried all sorts of RAW combos, but no luck.
Starting to feel frustrated as i cant seem to figure out.
That challenging?
something i am missing?

Seems like I need to get the lower and upper in a specific range, to get the fan to spin to where i want?
BIOS update maybe?
::grumble::

Have you tried fiddling with the duty cycle options?

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Depends on how important quietness is to you vs. how cool your enclosure is (and of course whatever the characteristics of the fans are). I set my upper criticals to those higher than my fans are capable of - so if your fan maxes out at say 2500rpm, set your upper crits to 2600, 2900, 3000, or something like that. That way the upper crits should never trigger except in the event of a serious malfunction that causes the speeds to be mis-reported.

Lower crits are more complicated but I'll generally set them slightly above the lowest fan speed you need to keep your case appreciably cool. For example if I've got fans that'll go as low as 300rpm, I might set the lower crit limits as 100, 200, 300. That way of the fans ever do speed down to 300rpm it'll throw a low non-crit assert.



Have you tried fiddling with the duty cycle options?

Ok. that is helpful. I think it just a matter of getting in the right range. At one point, I could get the fan down to 400rpm, but that was a little low. I wanted it around 800.

I have not tried fiddling with the duty cycle options. Forgive me, but where do i find that at? (embarrassed)

thanks

EDIT:
On a side note, here are the FAN SPecs:

Max. Rotational Speed (+/- 10%) 1600 RPM

Max. Rotational Speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%) 1300 RPM

Min. Rotational Speed (PWM, +/-20%) 300 RPM

 

[[Nobody]]

I got a X10SRA-F and I would like to control the fans since they're going crazy.
Fan1 = CPU 120mm
Fan2-3 = 120 mm
Fan 4-5 = 80 mm

I already set the thresholds, but they're still going mad.

FAN1 | 1600.000 | RPM | nr | 100.000 | 200.000 | 300.000 | 900.000 | 1000.000 | 1100.000
FAN2 | 1300.000 | RPM | nr | 100.000 | 200.000 | 300.000 | 800.000 | 900.000 | 1000.000
FAN3 | 1200.000 | RPM | nr | 100.000 | 200.000 | 300.000 | 800.000 | 900.000 | 1000.000
FAN4 | 3100.000 | RPM | nr | 800.000 | 1000.000 | 1200.000 | 1800.000 | 2300.000 | 2500.000
FAN5 | 3200.000 | RPM | nr | 800.000 | 1000.000 | 1200.000 | 1800.000 | 2300.000 | 2500.000

What can I do?

 

[RolloZ170]

your FAN5 RPM is higher than the upper threshold ?
with the thresholds you do not control the RPMs.

 

[[Nobody]]

I Set the threshold higher. But still no change of Fan speed

 

[RolloZ170]

I Set the threshold higher. But still no change of Fan speed

sure, thresholds do not control the operating RPMs of the FANs.
adjust FAN mode in IPMI Web-GUI.
if any FAN goes under or above the thresholds the BMC enters Panik mode and drives all FANs to 100% until the FAN(s) are within the thresholds again(and so on...wuhawuhawuha)

 

[[Nobody]]

I know. I set the fan Mode to Full, according to the tutorials. Then I entered the ipmi command to reduce the fan speed of both segments to 15 %, but they're still at 100 %

 

[RolloZ170]

Then I entered the ipmi command to reduce the fan speed

which cmd ?
min speed is higher than 15%.

 

[RolloZ170]

I know. I set the fan Mode to Full, according to the tutorials. Then I entered the ipmi command to reduce the fan speed of both segments to 15 %, but they're still at 100 %

afaik the scripts for FAN control depending on HDD temps need to do ipmi raw commands frequently, if not the BMC sets its own(every 5 seconds or so)