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.

[Erathiel]

Have there been any news on the progress recently? I think there must either have been none or I missed them entirely.

[Cyirak]

I have just purchased a DL320e for home and thought i would share my findings regarding noise and also look to the community for some advice.

Overall I’m happy with the server so far it consumes 30w of power (measured using a plug in power monitor) running HP ESXi 5.5 U2 with 5 or so idle VMs and 16GB of RAM.

Initially i found the server very noisy, i am running the latest BIOS (P80 2014.03.28) as well as iLO firmware (2.02).  The fans were running at fan 1:20% fan 2: 20% fan3:35% with the on-board storage controller in RAID.  I then established this was due to having a network card in the PCIe- x16 slot. This was a non-HP cheap NIC, upon removing this the server was nice and quiet with all the fans running at 6%, the PSU fan is still a little noisy but I can live with that.

So needing more NICs I added a HP NC360T dual port (this is an older card from around the gen 6 era) – fan problem returns as above. Placing it in the x8 slot meant fan 1 and 2 run at 22% fan 3 at 6% in the 16x slot I have the same problem as the non-HP NIC. So for the moment I’m making do with the two on board NICs which isn't ideal.

My question is does anyone have a HP Ethernet 1Gb 2-port 332T Adapter (615732-B21) installed in their DL320e V2 with the fans running at the lower speed?

I have attached screens with the fan speed and temperatures for info.

Edit: after a bit more research it does look like the pci card needs sea of sensors support which the 332T appears to have. if someone could confirm a working 332T at the  lower fan speeds that would be great. 

[T_1_6]

For god sake!

Can SOMEONE from HP confirm this stuff please?

Ive just bought 4 x NC365T and 4 x 361T Nics for these servers, but there is no mention of the sea of sensors capability.

IF a NIC card is insterted that does not have "sea of sensors" in the description, does that mean the fans run at higher speeds?

If so then I think HP need to offer some clarifcation here.

The 331T supports sea of sensors, as well as the 332T, but I bought Intel specifically for their reliability.

Have I just wasted my money?

[Cyirak]

hi T_1_6

Since posting I have actually purchased a HP 331T which is a quad port sea of sensors enabled NIC but not on the quick specs compatibility list and had the same problem.

Because of this I purchased a 332T which is a dual port sea of sensors compatible NIC listed on the quick specs as an optional NIC. To my frustration same problem...

I have currently got a support case open with HP so hopefully they are able to resolve this so far they have suggested I clear the NVRAM you can do this by switching switch 6 on the maintenance switches to on power the server on it will then inform you a maintenance switch is set to on. Power the machine down and switch this back to the original position. This may help you but I found it had no effect on mine.

i'll keep you informed as much as I can.

[T_1_6]

Ahh !

Thanks for this that saved me wasting any more money!

As it stands, my servers are running @ 29% fan speed with no add-in cards. This is with an older firmware revision, and the noise at 29% was reasonable, better at 26% though.

If the nc365T and the 361T  maintain the same fan speeds, I will be happy enough I think.

6% Fan speed would be a dream, it must be almost totally silent. However... with an addin card, I think 26% or thereabouts I would be happy with, its not that bad at 26%.

Wednesday I'll have them all up and running with the intel chipsetted NICs plus a P421 RAID Card, so I will post up my results and we can at least compare.

The main thing is though, that your PCI-e cards are reporting their temperatures to the ILO, and this can be checked. With the Sea of Senors support, I would imagine yours are reporting fine.

This being the case, what fan speeds are you seeing on average now, with the add in cards?

[Erathiel]

T_1_6, I run two units of DL320e Gen8 v2 -- one under Windows Server 2012 R2, the other under CentOS 6.6 with no add-in cards. The issue I had was with the FakeRAID controller which requires a proprietary driver to be loaded to function correctly. Without the driver fans run at ~33%. When the driver is loaded fan speed settles at ~6% under usual load and the servers are indeed hardly making any noise.

I haven't been aware that the issue had anything to do with add-in cards. If this is indeed the case then I need to reconsider my plans to buy another one of those servers and supply it with a Sangoma card, which, not being an HP-brand extensions, obviously does not support Sea of Sensors.

[Cyirak]

Without the Addin cards i get 6% fan speed across the board,

With the 332T card in i get 21%21% and 35%, the noise difference is very noticiable. 

The main problem i have is that the PCI-e cards arnt reporting the tempreture to iLO. HP have advised that the system board and PCI riser card need to be replaced so they will be sending an engineer out shortly to carry this out.

So yeah the fan speeds above are without the tempreture being reported at all. So presumably any non HP card or card without Sea of sensors support will have the same noise level.

[T_1_6]

Im struggling to believe that a brand new server has a faulty riser and motherboard!!

My hunch is that it will be exactly the same as before.

Having said that, the PCI-e temps should definitely be reported.

As soon as I can update my BIOS and ILO firmware I can test, but the site is down right now, which sucks.

Still, got 32GB of Kingston DDRL1600 working fine, so things are looking up.

[Cyirak]

I have the same feeling,

After speaking with HP they advised that the parts that would be fitted are refurbished. I know that refurbished parts are as good if not better than new but i cant bring my self to have a refurb board etc on a two week old server.

Server is going back for replacement will be interesting to see if the new one i recieve is the same. 

Yeah please let me know what happens with yours, i'd be interested to know if the PCI-e temps are being reported.

I went for 16GB of Crucial DDRL1600.  

I would love to know if anyone has this sever with the HP 332T NIC in and its reporting the temps.

[T_1_6]

Do you have any drives connected?

With the latest ILO firmware, my fans are running FASTER!

29, 29, and 35 continuously. Before with the older ILO they were on a constant 26%, I dont need any hard drives in these (esxi) so not happy with the increased fan speed for no reason!

[T_1_6]

OK now the fans have settled to 6% when installing esxi, but FAN3 is always running at 29% no matter what.

If there is no drive in any on of the bays, is this what it will default to?

 EDIT:- With a drive configured in the Smart Array B120i the fans do indeed drop to 6% 6% 6%.

However I do not want to run a drive in these servers, booting from SD into Esxi instead.

Can anyone from HP tell me how I can stop FAN3 from going mental when there are no hard drives installed?!

Thanks!

[T_1_6]

OK might me making progress...

Ive noticed the fans go crazy when the HD Max sensor says there is nothing installed. They only quieten down when that temp sensor is seen.

Now upon futher investigation, its ONLY seen after the correct drivers are loaded in the OS, THEN the fan speed drops accordingly.

So to extrapolate that to your situation Cyirak, are you seeing the PCI 1 and PCI2 temperature readings in the list or not?

It looks like HP use the drivers in the OS or something in the OS to communicate these temperatures to the ILO, rather than the ILO reading the temps direct from hardware.

When I installed a new NIC and just rebooted Esxi, there were no temps listed in the sensors list for the card, Im just re-installing Esxi now, and will see if they appear correctly when the drivers are installed.

If its the same as the case for the missing HD Max sensor I had when the drivers were not loaded, this could be what we need for correct temperature reporting. Thats if the ILO decides it wants to ramp the speeds down anyway.

 

EDIT:- now with all the NICs showing in exsi, I am getting PCI1 and PCI2 showing "not installed" under temperature sensors.

WHY HP, WHY?!! One NIC is an NC365T and the 2nd NIC is an HP 361T which is Sea of Sensors 3D compatible, so WHERE are the TEMPS in the ILO List?!!!

Argghhhhh

Ive attached a screenshot of what I mean, where are the flaming temps for the two NICs?!

:(

 HP, we need your help!

[Cyirak]

Hi T_1_6

I  am seeing exactly the same as you which makes me wonder how the tempretures are reported to iLO.

I'll try to find some time tonight to install windows server 2008 R2 or 2012 on the server and see if i still get the same behaviour.

What version of ESXi are you using? i presume you are using the HP customised ISO?

Thanks for posting your findings i feel like we're possibly making progress.

[T_1_6]

Was running the lastest November HP Esxi 5.5 version.

Saw all temps OTHER than the two NIC temps in the esxi configuration.

Under networking in ILO4 all NICs seen and recognised.

What annoys me the most, is that with that fan3 spinning like crazy, taking the top cover off and feeling the heatsink on the quad nic, it was COLD to the touch, so no need for the fan to go mental.

If you google image other ILO4 temps on other Gen8 servers, you can CLEARLY see there should be temps reported for the Pci-e cards, rather than just the zone.

Its seriously annoying.

Please let us know how you get on with the Windows HP NIC drivers, perhaps they report better to the ILO !

Having said that, I would still want to see the cards temperature being displayed in the ILO regardless. Like I said, Im running an NC365T AND a Sea of Sensors 3D compatible 361T also, and neither are showing as installed under the temperature list.

This isnt acceptable I don't think.

IF anyone from the HP team can comment on this behaviour, we would be very grateful !

:)

[Cyirak]

This is a mirror of the behaviour i am experiancing. 

I'll keep you posted. 

If HP could chip in would be appricated.