DL320e Gen8 v2 fan noise

[Darren_cw]

I recently purchased a brand new DL320e Gen8 v2 and have installed VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-Update1-1065491-HP-5.50.26 onto the embedded internal microSD slot. There are no internal drives or expansion cards of any type installed. It’s running the latest available iLO and Bios versions.

The fan noise is ridiculously loud with the fan speeds reporting 80-85% most of the time at post and when the OS has booted. I think the temperatures reported all seem quite normal, in the example below the office aircon had been turned off for the weekend so inlet was a little warmer than normal.

I’ve tried a number of different power profiles bios and also checked  “Optimal cooling” was ser. Have also tried OS control and static settings with little effect.

I’ve logged a HP case and they are sending somebody to change the motherboard when the parts arrive. Apparently this model is so new there are no spares yet in Australia. I really dubious about it being a hardware fault. Any suggestions ?
Here are the temps and fan speeds from iLO.

01-Inlet Ambient Ambient 11 1 OK OK 31C Caution: 42C; Critical: 46C 02-CPU 1 CPU 13 6 OK OK 40C Caution: 70C; Critical: N/A
03-P1 DIMM 1-4 Memory 11 6 OK OK 32C Caution: 87C; Critical: N/A 04-HD Max System 5 3 Not installed Not installed N/A N/A
05-Chipset System 11 10 OK OK 40C Caution: 105C; Critical: N/A
06-P/S 1 Power Supply 2 11 Not installed Not installed N/A N/A
07-VR P1 Power Supply 14 3 OK OK 35C Caution: 115C; Critical: 120C
08-Supercap Max System 7 14 Not installed Not installed N/A N/A
09-iLO Zone System 14 14 OK OK 40C Caution: 77C; Critical: 82C
10-LOM I/O Board 10 14 Not installed Not installed N/A N/A
11-LOM Zone System 11 15 OK OK 35C Caution: 68C; Critical: 73C
12-PCI 1 I/O Board 10 12 Not installed Not installed N/A N/A
13-PCI 2 I/O Board 13 12 Not installed Not installed N/A N/A
14-PCI 1 Zone I/O Board 11 14 OK OK 34C Caution: 69C; Critical: 74C
15-PCI 2 Zone I/O Board 12 14 OK OK 34C Caution: 73C; Critical: 78C
16-System Board System 13 8 OK OK 31C Caution: 68C; Critical: 73C
17-Sys Exhaust Chassis 14 15 OK OK 35C Caution: 67C; Critical: 72C

Fan 1 System OK OK 83%
Fan 2 System OK OK 83%
Fan 3 System OK OK 83%

[Darren_cw]

I found the answer without any help from HP. HP seem intent on sending a technician out to replace the motherboard and fan assemblies which now seems ludicrous.

The issue appears to be caused by a bug in the B120i RAID controller affecting other Gen8 products such as the Gen8 Microservers. I found this after much googling: 

http://www.avforums.com/forums/networking-nas/1783788-hp-microserver-g8-here-2.html

If the B120i controller is disabled or set to Intel ACHI mode the high fan speeds >75% persist. If a hard disk is connected and a valid array created on the B120i controller the fan speeds drop to less than 10% making the server almost inaudible.

I wasn't intending to have any hard disks in this server as was intending to boot from the on-board micro-SD card. I've inserted an old 2.5 laptop drive and created an array to shut up the fan noise. Obviously this is not ideal as I've removed the hard drive blanks from the front of the case.

I hope HP can provide an alternative solution that will address this bug.

[ZakSmith]

Is there any resolution to this issue?

[Lincy_Zachariah]

Hi,

Please Refer to the following document:

http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/psi/mostViewedDisplay?javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.prp_efb5c0793523e51970c8fa22b053ce01=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c04054419-1%257CdocLocale%253Den_US&javax.portlet.tpst=efb5c0793523e51970c8fa22b053ce01&sp4ts.oid=5379527&ac.admitted=139...

[Moderator edit: Removed the broken link. Please refer to https://support.hpe.com/]

[Oscar A. Perez]

There is a new P80 ROM dated 2013.11.08 that reduces the FAN speed.

[ZakSmith]

---

Lincy_Zachariah wrote:

Please Refer to the following document:

http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/psi/mostViewedDisplay?javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.prp_efb5c0793523e51970c8fa22b053ce01=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c04054419-1%257CdocLocale%253Den_US&javax.portlet.tpst=efb5c0793523e51970c8fa22b053ce01&sp4ts.oid=5379527&ac.admitted=139...

---

This is document instructs one to use fake raid as a workaround and confirms that there is a thermal control bug when used in regular AHCI mode.  It is not a resolution to the issue described here.   All this is well known from the MicroServer threads.  Not an acceptable resolution IMO.  If we are going to use software RAID (which the "B120i driver" is), then we are going to use something standard and that offers additional features such as ZFS.

[Erathiel]

---

@Oscar A. Perez wrote:

There is a new P80 ROM dated 2013.11.08 that reduces the FAN speed.

---

I would like to make anyone concerned aware that this is not really a resolution. My DL320e Gen8 v2 runs on this particular version of firmware and the fans go at roughly 33-37% with Smart Array B120i set to enabled but without the hpvsa driver (I run Debian for which there is no driver available). If I switch to AHCI mode the noise becomes even worse.

Are there any news of any upcoming firmware updates for the Gen8 family?

[ZakSmith]

On mine in AHCI mode or with no drives in (using an LSI controller instead), I am still about 30-35% fans.  No OS driver (debian).

Here are some other comments on the DL320e v2 controller

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/ATA-hard-reset-errors-on-DL320e-v2-in-AHCI-mode-with-NCQ-write/td-p/6421634#.UzHJjVYjsQM

[Moderator edit: Removed the broken link]

[Erathiel]

So it seems a new ROM was published for the MicroServer family (see this message). Is there any news of the same for DL320e Gen8 v2?

That would be great to hear.

[Erathiel]

Just to keep everyone updated: the issue is being worked on (see this message by Jimmy Vance). Not all people are following that Microserver thread so I thought I'd just bring the news here.