HP DL 165 G6 very noisy - fan speed

[irens]

HI.

I have Proliant DL 165 G6 and centos 5.5

Is any way to slow down of all 6 fans ? The server is very noisy ! By now it operates at 10K RPM of fan speed.

I have the lates bios and will upgrade to lates BMC firmware (from 3.11 to 3.20). Any chance to lower speed of fans ?

Best regards.

[Romulus6cbc]

I wondering has anyone found a solution to this yet. I just purchased a DL180 G6 server a month ago for a small office and the noise from the fans are extremely loud, to the point where it's interfering with daily office operations. This is during daily normal operations of the server, not during startup. As I understand it, there are no hardware monitoring sensors for the fans, and they are actually controlled by the health system agents which take over the fan operations after startup. There four non-redundant system fans, with one fan running at almost 10K rpm, one running at almost 6k rpm, and the other two around 3k rpm. Per HP tech support I have updated the system BIOS, the Lights Out Remote Management firmware, and the Management Controller drivers with no effect. The are no added riser cards in the system. I have tried re-seating the fans and switching the fans, with no effect. Has anyone tried replacing the non-redundant fan kit with the redundant fan kit? I guess my theory is more fans operating at slower speeds will tone the noise to some degree. Any help will appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help.

[irens]

Hi.

I observed that speed of fans are dependable from temp of power ambient. So i observed at sensors screen in BMC:

Temperature - Power Ambient - Normal operating range - 23 deg. C and fans rotates from 7200 to 8200 so there is noise. So rotate of fans depend from Temperature - Power Ambient. This sensor is very sensitive and fans rotates faster and faster, when temp is growing constantly in 1 - 2 deg C.

So i think, when i could have this server in server room with proper cooling - maybe 18 deg. C then it would be not so noisy.

I think, it should be proper BIOS upgrade prepare by HP tech guy, to lower sensors sensitive. The border should be much more than present. This server in summary dos'nt do much and fans are so fast and louder.

Defenitly BIOS upgrade should be prepared for this issue.

Regards,

P.S. BCM in hp proliant series 100 is shit of crap, even in the lates version: 3.20

It was my last ever HP server.


I.Piasecki

[Saberus]

Don't let the 100 series be you measure of HP's servers, they are designed to be something affordable that works for a rack. The 300 series run quite well and quiet. Plus the iLO runs much smoother than the LO100

But 1U servers are going to be louder by design. Smaller fans have to run faster to move the same amount of air, or the server has to be built deeper to accommodate blowers.

[gui2_1]

Hi,

I have the same problem with a DL180G6.
I exchange many mails with HP support. For me it's seem to be a problem when we plug a PCIe card in riser or directly on the motherboard (independant from vendor i tried some "noname" NIC card). When there is no PCIe card, the fan operate at normal speed (2000~3000rpm) but whe PCIe card is plugged, this value is increased above 5000 rpm for all fans.
Do you have additionnal pcie cards in your systems ?
For me it's a firmware problem that must be fixed.

Best regards

[Romulus6cbc]

I have the same problem with a DL180G6.
I exchange many mails with HP support. For me it's seem to be a problem when we plug a PCIe card in riser or directly on the motherboard (independant from vendor i tried some "noname" NIC card). When there is no PCIe card, the fan operate at normal speed (2000~3000rpm) but whe PCIe card is plugged, this value is increased above 5000 rpm for all fans.
Do you have additionnal pcie cards in your systems ?
For me it's a firmware problem that must be fixed.

Yes, I do have a PCIe riser card in the system, however, this was part of the original configuration from HP (DL180 PID: 532074-005). The riser card is a HP Smart Array P410/256MB Controller card, so I cannot uninstall it to test the system, as it's essential for system operations. I've been working with HP support for the past few weeks, but the progress is excruciatingly slow. I think they are aware of the problem, but refuse to do anything about it. I recently ordered the redundant fan kit (P/N: 516009-B21) hoping it would reduce the fan noise. It arrives tomorrow. I will post my results after testing out the kit.

[irens]

@Gui2

It is standard configuration DL 165 G6 with pci-e card - smart array P212. I don't have made any test, if it noisy with this card or without.

In future, when i will have occasion, i will try it.

And YES - +1 - it should be fixed.

[gui2_1]

Do anyone experience another problem of unwanted bmc downgrade/updgrade when you plug AND unplugged some additionnal pciE cards? In my case, a network card NC360T?
After a successful upgrade the BMC reset and error 627 is displayed (see atachment) and fan runs @ full speed.

I take a picture of the behavior i attached it to my reply.

[Romulus6cbc]

Gui2.....Your POST related error sounds like a loose cable, PCI card or a system board component. Since you just uninstalled a NIC, I would re-seat all the PCI cards, and check the connecting cables.

Getting back to the fan problem, I have at least figured out the problem thanks to Gui2. I uninstalled the riser kit form the DL180 G6, turned it back on, and after the POST check, lo and behold the server was running at a whisper quiet. In fact the DL120 G6, which is a 1U server also with four system fans, and installed in the same rack, was now louder than the DL180. I checked the fan rotation rate in the BIOS; fans 1, 2 and 4 were running at 2472.2 RPM, and fan 3 was running at 3996.8 RPM. As soon as I reinstalled the riser kit, fan 3â s rotation rate went up to 9223.3 RPM, fans 1 and 2 went up to 5709.7 RPM, and fan 4 went up to 2997.6 RPM.

Uninstalling the riser kit permanently, is not an option for me since it was part of HPâ s original configuration (Proliant DL180 G6 Special Rack Server), and connects the Smart Array P410/256MB Controller to the hard drives and the system board.

So the question now it seems, not what the cause or the problem is, but what the fix is? I will forward my findings to the case manager handling this issue, and hopefully he/she will have fix, which I will post.

[andy-x]

It also happens with my ML350 and NC112T NIC card .... If you mount the NIC the fan runs very strong and is very noisy.

Hopefully there is a solution fast.

[Manuel Boosch]

hello,

plz press f9 at start up and join the RBSU
--> Advanced Options
--> Thermal Configuration
--> Choose "increased cooling"

does this help ?

[irens]

Is this correct for DL 165 G6 too ? I can't find this in BIOS menu.

[Romulus6cbc]

Yes, I am wondering the same thing. Is this applicable to the DL120 G6 and the DL180 G6? Although I did find documentation here that suggests it is -
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00191707/c00191707.pdf

I tried it on the DL120, but it didn't work. I haven't tried it on the DL180 yet, as the DL120's system board blew out while doing a BIOS update. HP is sending out a system board tomorrow. I am afraid to restart the DL180, as it might not boot up, as the DL120 is the domain controller. If slowing down the fans is as easy as changing the settings in RBSU then not only does HP suck as leading IT manufacturer, but so does their L1 & L2 HP support. I will laugh if it is that easy.

[Manuel Boosch]

have nearly all g6 models here but no 160/165. seems to be a different RBSU, saw it in the user manual
http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01756929/c01756929.pdf

u are right there is no thermal configuration option :-(

[Romulus6cbc]

Expanding on my previous test, I performed several other tests with different PCIe configurations. My findings are attached. The culprit seems to be the PCIe expansion card.

[irens]

Hi.

For me HP company and people behind it learned nothing - look at this thread:

https://community.hpe.com/t5/General/Fedora-13-Installation-Problems-HP-DL165/m-p/4656492/highlight/true#M18453

Solution: New BIOS to reduce fan speed, when there is in server a PCi riser card.

So this is know for HP, in another model, but this happend in past.

So, HP tech people - fix BIOS for our server, so they could be in the last so quiet.

[gui2_1]

@Romulus6cbc
Nice you wrote it on a pdf file. I do almost the same test you will find result below :
For these test, i use only a SUPPORTED network card (NC360T). I read this value from the LO100 card web interface.

Server with riser card an PCIe Card plugged on it :
Fan FAN1_INLET Normal operating range 8269.2 RPM
Fan FAN2_INLET Normal operating range 8269.2 RPM
Fan FAN3_INLET Normal operating range 12621.4 RPM
Fan FAN4_INLET Normal operating range 12621.4 RPM


Server without riser card and PCIe card plugged directly on motherboard :
Fan FAN1_INLET Normal operating range 5709.7 RPM
Fan FAN2_INLET Normal operating range 5848.9 RPM
Fan FAN3_INLET Normal operating range 7494 RPM
Fan FAN4_INLET Normal operating range 3155.3 RPM


Serveur without ani PCIe card with riser module (without riser module value below are quite the same)
Fan FAN1_INLET Normal operating range 2467 RPM
Fan FAN2_INLET Normal operating range 2512 RPM
Fan FAN3_INLET Normal operating range 2438.7 RPM
Fan FAN4_INLET Normal operating range 2453.4 RPM


Now i'm so bored to do HP support job I spend to much time on this problem. This is not our job to test & test & test configurations. Problem is identified.
HP GIVE US A FIX !!!
I gonna throw this server out!

[Romulus6cbc]

@gui2
First of all, thanks for posting your results. Second, thanks for making me laugh. I agree with your conclusions, but please don't give up yet. I have a feeling we, as in the user forum community, might be close to a solution. No thanks to those idiot engineers at HP. These are my first HP servers, but not the first time dealing with HP support. In my opinion, they've always sucked, and never have done anything to improve their client services. The HP L2 engineer actually asked me to do a bunch of tests and report the results back to him/her. As you said, it is NOT our job. They should be able to recreate the situation in their labs with the given configuration. It makes me suspect more and more that HP is fully aware of the problem, but refuse to do anything about it, either because they don't have a solution, or it would cost too much to fix the problem. I am accustomed to dealing with Dell. Their server support is based in North America, and are very knowledgeable and helpful, but Dell has it's own problems with non-standard parts and third party contractors.

So I was looking at the forum thread suggested by IRENS, and it got me thinking that maybe the chipset with the silver heatsink (cooling plate), between the PCIe riser card slots and the DIMMs, is really overheating due to the PCIe expansion card being positioned right over it, causing the Fan 3 to rotate at a higher speed (as suggested in the thread for the ML350 G6). So I am going to order a small chipset fan, install it right on top of the heatsink, and see if that slows down the fans. Probably will take me a few days. Plus the optional redundant fan kit that I ordered a couple of weeks ago, arrives Tuesday, so I will test that out also, and post the results. Well everyone have a good week, but bring your ear plugs to work with you, LOL!

[gui2_1]

@Romulus6cbc
:)
I can't give up now cause our system will be too noisy! But i'm really borred dealing with L1 support guy (notice that i'm stay correct). But they are really not helpfull with us.
I'm a regular HP server user but not this line of product, these (160-180 series) are the low-end side of their productline - I think. But that does not give them the right to leave us stuck with these kind of problem. I start contacting the HP support 1 month ago (I open my support ticket 05/07/2010) ; pinpoint this problem since the beginning.
If this "problem" is "by design" (with microsoft words :) ) So tell us, and we won't bother you more !
If not ; please tell us we the new firmware gonna be released (days, month ...) ! And then won't bother more the hp support ;)

[irens]

Anybody knows, any HP responsive person read this community forum ? Or this only like a "wish list" for frustrated HP customers ?

[gui2_1]

I sent this discussion thread to the HP level 1 support guy.

[shamanius]

Hello!
Have same problen on Proliant DL 180 G6.
11-12K RPM all four fans!
Fantastic noise!
All latest bios, firmwares, drivers are installed. Need help!

[irens]

Good luck !

[Romulus6cbc]

Hi everyone, sorry I've been out of touch. I had to replace the HP DL180 system board. It had stopped making link to the network, and after an exhaustive troubleshooting session with HP support, they decided to replace the system board (seems like their universal answer to every problem). A HP engineer was dispatched to the site and the system board was replaced without having any effect on the network link problem. It was eventually determined the problem was the HP ProCurve 2510 Switch. I do have to give credit to the HP engineer; he was professional, courteous, knowledgeable, and stayed with me until the problem was resolved. I was also hoping that replacing the system board would solve the problem with the fan noise. It didnâ t. Just before I had the above mentioned problem, I had replaced the standard non-redundant fan kit, with a redundant fan kit, hoping that more fans spinning at a lower rpm would diminish the noise. It didn't. In fact, it made it louder, because the redundant outlet fans were spinning at the same rpm as the inlet fans. So after not hearing from HP support on this case for almost two weeks, I gave them a call and asked to be transferred to a support manager, who in turn put me in touch with the L2 engineer in charge of the case. First he told me he was going to call me today (yeah right), and apologized for not updating me on the progress of the case because he is just so busy (how is that my problem, donâ t know). Then he basically told me that he had replicated the issued in the lab, and the server noise level was in accordance with the ISO 9296, and working within the server specifications. He told me that the fans need to run at the higher rpm to cool down the CPU and the PCIe expansion card. So any time there are expansion cards plugged into the PCIe slot, the fans will run at a higher rpm. He also told me this is by design, and there is nothing more he can do, and is closing the case. So there is everyone, I think the L2 engineer said it all, other saying that HP serves really really suck, and donâ t ever buy HP again! Not sure what I am going to try now, maybe try to cool down the chipset located next to the PCIe riser slot, with small chipset fan. He also suggested I might try installing the redundant fan kit. I told him I had already thought of that, and did. He said, â Ohâ .

[irens]

What a shit - never ever again HP and HP Care Pack, it's worth nothing.

I don't feel like a HP customer, but like a dog. We, here have serous issue and HP Team don't see that, even this isse was too for another model of HP.

This should be fixed and again, never ever HP hardware again with their illy support.

Amen.