HP ProLiant DL360p G8 Fans and Setup issues

[darrenwindle]

Im a bit a of a newbie to owning and operating my own hardware as in the past I have just rented in a datacentre. I recently aquired a HP DL360p Gen8 1u Server, I bought it as barebones as they come secondhand. I have 2 Xeons E5-2309 but only installed 1, added some registered DDR3 332GB and 5 SAS Drives. I have spent 2 days trying to install ESXi 6.5 from a usb stick. but the server does not want to pick up the usb at all. I formatted the stick and put on the ISOs direct and booted into Intel Provisioning. It picked the ISO up easy, however the server fans according to ILo stated running at 29% but when I went through Intel Prov, it started updating the firmware and the fans ramped up to what seemed like 150% then it asked me to reboot. Is this normal and should I be worried?

[BPSingh]

Greetings!

I understand you have already installed OS (Esxi 6.5) on the server.

What is the fan RPM that you see in iLO?

If the fans RPM was high during firmware upgrade but then came down to normal post the update then it is normal.

Additional tips:

Please ensure Advanced option->thermal configuration is set to optimal cooling (From RBSU/BIOS).

Non HPE drives and non HPE PCIe cards can increase fan noise.

Regards,
Bhupendra

[darrenwindle]

I tried to but was unsuccessful using a USB Drive as the system did not pick it up so went and tried to do it through Intelligent Provisioning. I got through to selecting the ESXi ISO (Esxi 6.5 was the only one it would pick up). It is at that point it decided to update the firmware, as it did that the fans ramped up (Almost fell off my chair) and asked me to reboot. 

At present, I am only running it with one of the CPUs in and 4GB DDR3 Reg in each ram in slots 1 to 12. Don't want to add the other CPU and redundant power supply until I know I can get the thing working. 

Side note, when I bought it the list advised it had an ILO error, but I have since added an ILO Advanced key and it seems to work with no warnings except advising there is only one PSU installed. 

I think my main question is, I am new to owning a physical server (Home Lab, I have normally owned dedicated in a data centre) the server is not going to break or do anything bad if the fans ramp up that fast?

[BPSingh]

If the server is placed in a place where server operational temperature is maintained then should not be a concern.

Please refer operating temperature on page#71

https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c04128242#

Also please ensure "Thermal Shutdown" is enabled in BIOS.

If thermal settings are disabled, the System Management Driver ignores thermal events and the system immediately powers off in data-destructive situations. If the thermal settings are enabled it initiates a shutdown due to non-redundant fan failures or temperature increases beyond the pre-set threshold.

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=c00191707