MicroServer Gen8 is noisy

[PAC_]

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@dof wrote:

just to share my experience :

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Community-Regional-Operating/Microserver-Gen8-Debian-FAN-noise-control/m-p/6204469

When I install RHEL 0 to 6 % fan Speed

When I install Debian 39%+ fan speed :(

If you have solution...

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Interesting, I am running FreeNAS 9.1.1 (FreeBSD 9-STABLE).

Did you leave your BIOS thermal options to the default configuration ?

[dof]

yes I leave all by default

[Jimmy Vance]

dof, were these configurations with the B120i enabled or were you using plain SATA AHCI mode?

[dof]

I use both.

HP come here to change motherboard tomorrow.

[Jimmy Vance]

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@dof wrote:

I use both.

HP come here to change motherboard tomorrow.

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Changing the system board is a waste of everyones time. This issue will more than likely require a firmware update to resolve

[Jimmy Vance]

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@dof wrote:

I use both.

So which mode and drivers were you using when you saw 6% fan, and which mode and drivers were you using when you saw 39% fan?

[PAC_]

Good news!

I have just been contacted by a Level 2 Engineer who let me know that support has been able to pinpoint the source of the problem:

[...] we have pinpointed the issue to be the fan tables on the server when the controller is enabled on AHCI/Legacy mode, which are different than in RAID mode.

   The case is being elevated to engineering for their input and possible fix on the issue.

The case is progressing, I will keep you posted!

[dlogik]

Great work!

I recently purchased a gen8 microserver and it also appears to have the fan issue. I am running in AHCI mode with Ubuntu Linux.

Thanks

[gghpserver]

This is great news! I was planning on buying a gen8 microserver as my new home server, but as soon as I saw the fan noise issue I said "forget it" ... the server I have now is so loud and annoying - I'm never making that mistake again.

Hopefully this is fixed soon and I can grab one. The fan noise issue is really the only thing keeping me from purchasing!

[Jimmy Vance]

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@gghpserver wrote:

Hopefully this is fixed soon and I can grab one. The fan noise issue is really the only thing keeping me from purchasing!

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Fan noise is very subjective.... Even though the fan is spinning up to nearly 40% in AHCI mode, to me it isn't really all that loud. If my laptop fan kicks on, I can actually hear it over the MicroServer fan in my home office.

At 6% you can't tell the unit is on.

At ~40% I'd venture to say it's a bit louder than a tower desktop.

It's nothing compared to the fan noise produced by the servers in my lab. I currently have two MicroServer Gen8 systems sitting here in my cubicle. Both are in AHCI mode. With the ambient noise around me I can tell these system are on, but again, they aren't really that loud compared to the noise around me.

As several of you know, I recently reported the fan noise problem to the MicroServer product team. Now that I've been able to push PAC_'s case higher up in the support chain hopefully there will be a resolution soon. I'm assuming there will be some changes to the way the BIOS and iLO use the temperature sensor data.