MicroServer Gen8 is noisy

[clampy82]

Hi all,

first time poster, long time reader.

I would also like to chime in on the AHCI mode on the controller. I would really like to use it without the iLO having a panic about hdd temps and ramping the fan speed up.

There is a lot more i would like to say in this post but its more or less been covered.

Pretty please give us a better/usable AHCI mode!

[jazz1138]

For people after an un-official fix. A bootleg iLO firmware has appeared on the homeservershow.com forums in the post titled "G8 Microserver - Be aware of Fan issue, add in cards".

I've tested and it works for me.

[karma4u101]

I have a older hp MicroServer running Ubuntu 13.10, used as booth media server and web server and it is dead silent !

I recently decided to invest in newer (and a bit faster) hardware and as a was really happy with the older microserver I decides to go for the newer gen8 and at the same time I bought 2 st HP 1TB 6G SATA 7.2K rpm LFF (3.5-inch) N disks.

I immediately noticed how awfully noisy this maskin was (unacceptable noisy) compared to the dead silent older one.

It seemd like I got b120i running under ubuntu configured with raid0 but the maskin was still noisy and I have during the past week been trying to fix the problem with different setting but non of the setting has made me happy :( as I compare it with my other microserver or compared to the (silent) noice level i experienced as described below. 

Using the Ubuntu 13.10 server dist the only time the server fans spins down (after a minute or so) and the sound is comparable with my older microserver is when I boot into F5 for hp smart array b120i configuration.

My questions is

1) Will/is HP support(ing) ubuntu server for this maskin using a b120i raid configuration, if so using it will I then get ridd of the fan noice?

2) Will HP fix the issue with the fan noice in genneral so that the maskin will be silent as expected runing ubuntu server software. if so in what form will the fix come will it be a firmware update or some linux driver updates?

3) Have I made a major blunder trusting hp to deliver awesome hardware and having contious commitment to support major open  source software like Ubuntu ?

To me it seems a bit strange that the internal b120i controller (and propritary software) has to be used for the fans to operate correctly but if hp decides this is the only way to get this maskin to run silently please provide information on how to make it work as expected on ubuntu.

best regards Peter

[Oscar A. Perez]

Update: I've been testing a new J06 ROM (still Beta) that reduces the Microserver Gen8 Fan speed from 36% down to 28% when room temperature is 25ºC. This is of course, when SATA AHCI mode is used where iLO4 is unable to obtain Hard Drives temperatures to better control the system fan. 

This ROM will be released next month and I will provide the FTP link as soon as it gets signed off.

[Torsten.]

Similar problem ...

We have here 2 ML310e Gen8, one with disks connected to the B120i dynamic smart array controller (not noisy) and one with a P420 smart array for the internal disks (noisy). This server has the internal controller set to SATA AHCI, but no disks connected.

Will disabling the controller solve the problem too?
We cannot test at the moment.

[karma4u101]

Hi

If the new J06 ROM that reduces the fan speed from 36% to 28% will result in a significant reduction in noice the this is great news.

However I do not understand why suddenly the same arkiteture (the hp proliant microservers line) no longer is able to get temperature information from the running system (!?) as it clearly dose on my older microserver wher, I can, occasionally notice regulations in fan speed wher the server gets slightly audible due to som spikes in work load but most of the time the server is barely audiable at all even in a quit room. That server is running the exact same ubuntu version.

Why is iLO4 unable to obtain Hard Drives temperatures to controll the system fan when runing in SATA AHCI mode ? when older versions of the microserver works quitly (and with temperatur controll) without raid settings to do it ?

[karma4u101]

... The sole reason I chose to buy the microserver in the first place was due to its quiet operation as it is ment to run i a quet surrounding

[PAC_]

---

@karma4u101 wrote:

Hi

If the new J06 ROM that reduces the fan speed from 36% to 28% will result in a significant reduction in noice the this is great news.

However I do not understand why suddenly the same arkiteture (the hp proliant microservers line) no longer is able to get temperature information from the running system (!?) as it clearly dose on my older microserver wher, I can, occasionally notice regulations in fan speed wher the server gets slightly audible due to som spikes in work load but most of the time the server is barely audiable at all even in a quit room. That server is running the exact same ubuntu version.

Why is iLO4 unable to obtain Hard Drives temperatures to controll the system fan when runing in SATA AHCI mode ? when older versions of the microserver works quitly (and with temperatur controll) without raid settings to do it ?

---

The previous MicroServer N40L and N54L did not have iLO functionality built-in.

[karma4u101]

Yes, thank you, that's the obvious short answer. So what you are not saying is that because the old microserver did not have iLO functionality it was able to regulate the fans (by messuring sytem and disk temperatures) and now that the system have built in iLO functionality this abiltiy has been lost for non i120 controlled system usage ?

I am sorry if I am asking uncomfortable questions all I want is that HP takes this issue seriously and try to resolve the noise issue in a way that satesfies cosumers that has come to expect an enjoy the silent operation from previous hp proliant microservers.

As I said in a prev post the biggest selleing argument and the reason I bought a new microserver is/was it's silent operation as it is ment to operate in a silent environment.

[jamesah2008]

This fan issue is pure horse-manure. I am stunned that there are issues like this. It's 2014. What the hell is going on HP? I should have just bought a synology! And we can only boot from SSD at sata II speeds from the ODD slot? I'm am about to sell this failure and move on with my life. You guys better hurry this fix up.

[PAC_]

Yes, iLO 4 comes with a lot of advantages and a couple of disadvantages such as limited drivers and OS support.

HP is working on a fix, hopefully they can manage to lower the noise level near what it is when the Smart Array is configured and loaded.

[sergz]

What is the difference in principle between 36% and 28%? I've been monitoring the speed of the fan for a while and even 10% is quite loud. Meanwhile with the same temperature values on the Information>System Information>Temperatures, when b120i is enabled the fan speed is 6%, and with SATA AHCI the speed is 32%.

BTW, for me even 6% is not enough quite for living room.

I fully support all participants who says that it's an epic fail of HP. My fail is to miss this thread and make a purchase.

[Oscar A. Perez]

If your fan is loud when running at 25-26 PWM (~10%) then, there is something very wrong with your fan or your hard drives are noisy.

I've been testing my Microserver Gen8 in a quiet room with multiple storage configurations and honestly, with any fan speed below 45 PWM (~18%), the system fan is very quiet.  In fact, I can only hear my 4x 7200RPM SATA HP drives making all the noise at that point.

I've also tested few unsupported scenarios, like using 15K RPM 2.5" SAS HP drives (in 3rd party 2.5" to 3.5" adapter  caddys) connected to a P222 Smart Array card and these drives do run hot.  iLO shows the temperature of these drives above 50ºC all the time, while the P222 temperature is a constant 85ºC.  The system fan runs at 85PMW (~22%) and in a quiet room, the 2.5" SAS drives make all the noise.

[Oscar A. Perez]

Quote: "Why is iLO4 unable to obtain Hard Drives temperatures to control the system fan when runing in SATA AHCI mode ? when older versions of the microserver works quitly (and with temperatur controll) without raid settings to do it ?"

iLO can only obtain hard drive temperatures from Smart Array controllers.  The Smart Array controller acts as "the middle man" between the hard drives and the rest of the system. The Smart Array properly handles commands coming from both the OS and iLO.  Also, the hard drives need to have temperature sensors and support those commands that the Smart Array will send to them.

On the other hand, the Legacy SATA and SATA AHCI are just "standard" ports on the sytem and there is no physical connection that would allow iLO talk to these ports directly. You could try adding your own "middle man", like writting a driver that could handle requests coming from iLO and then pass these requests down to the ports. But, there are caveats. These commands could interfere with command sent by the OS storage driver so, it is not a good idea.  

A better solution would be replacing the OS storage driver with one that accept requests from both iLO and the OS. This is what the B120i driver does by the way but, only with the embedded B120i controller. 

[karma4u101]

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Oscar A. Perez wrote:

"iLO can only obtain hard drive temperatures from Smart Array controllers. The Smart Array controller acts as "the middle man" between the hard drives and the rest of the system. The Smart Array properly handles commands coming from both the OS and iLO.  Also, the hard drives need to have temperature sensors and support those commands that the Smart Array will send to them."

I invested in 2 HP 1TB 6G SATA 7.2K rpm LFF (3.5-inch) N just to be sure they would work properly with the microserver

Oscar A. Perez wrote:

"On the other hand, the Legacy SATA and SATA AHCI are just "standard" ports on the system and there is no physical connection that would allow iLO talk to these ports directly. You could try adding your own "middle man", like writing a driver that could handle requests coming from iLO and then pass these requests down to the ports. But, there are caveats. These commands could interfere with command sent by the OS storage driver so, it is not a good idea."

If iLO only works properly with smart array why, to avoid interferences, isn't it disabled in legacy and ahci mode, with a fallback to the behavior and control functions of older microservers, you see right now I am feeling really unfortunate to have invested in this machine expecting it to work as silent and smooth as my older microserver on Ubuntu :(

Oscar A. Perez wrote: 

"A better solution would be replacing the OS storage driver with one that accept requests from both iLO and the OS. This is what the B120i driver does by the way but, only with the embedded B120i controller. "

Well If this is the only sensible solution I would happily do that, so If you or someone could provide me with a way to get Ubuntu server up and running with the B120i controller I would be a happy costumer again.

Pointer's to documentation and/or proper ubuntu server software packages and server versions is highly appreciated.

I have found this [1] documentation and I will try it out, but glancing at it, It feels a bit unclear,  I am hoping for some better documentation and instructions provided by HP (as you insist on keeping your drivers proprietary) and better Ubuntu support from hp as you seems to have lost it on this one :(

[1] https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu-certification/+question/214703#comment-22

/Peter

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[Oscar A. Perez]

A new J06 ROM dated 2013.11.09 has been signed off.  This is the one I've been testing that reduces fan speed from 36% down to 28% when SATA AHCI mode is used

I have uploaded the ROM to my temp FTP site.

FTP Access :

ftp://luvmyleo:G!vit2me@ftp.usa.hp.com/MicroServer_Gen8/ROM

FTP System: ftp.usa.hp.com (15.192.89.0, Failover: 15.193.130.0)

HTTPS Access: https://ftp.usa.hp.com/hprc

Login: luvmyleo
Password: G!vit2me (NOTE: CASE-sensitive)

[Therealjmc]

Installed it, on my system the fan is reduced to 19% not 28%?

Edit:

At the first look: Increases °C Temp on overall by 5°C (for example 05-Chipset from 50°C to 55°C while idle and HDDs in Spindown)

[paulgear]

Thanks for the update Oscar!

Can you point to any installation instructions?  Do we need only one of the ROMPaq/Win_x64/Win_x86/Linux files?

[Jimmy Vance]

Just grab the file for your choice of OS, and run it. For Linux chmod the .scexe executable

[paulgear]

Thanks Jimmy.  Sorry for the noise.  I should have looked in the file first.  I just did a "file CP021718.scexe" and it said "data" so I assumed it wasn't a shell script.  Strange that it didn't pick up the #!/bin/sh at the beginning as a clue...

[paulgear]

Hmmm... When I run it, I get this:

---

Flash Engine Version: Linux-1.2.0-3

Name: Online ROM Flash Component for Linux - HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 (J06) Servers
New Version: 2013.11.09

The software will not be installed on this system because the required
hardware is not present in the system or the software/firmware doesn't
apply to this system.

iLO device not found.

---

Any ideas?

[PAC_]

---

@Oscar A. Perez wrote:

A new J06 ROM dated 2013.11.09 has been signed off.  This is the one I've been testing that reduces fan speed from 36% down to 28% when SATA AHCI mode is used

I have uploaded the ROM to my temp FTP site.

FTP Access :

ftp://luvmyleo:G!vit2me@ftp.usa.hp.com/MicroServer_Gen8/ROM

FTP System: ftp.usa.hp.com (15.192.89.0, Failover: 15.193.130.0)

HTTPS Access: https://ftp.usa.hp.com/hprc

Login: luvmyleo
Password: G!vit2me (NOTE: CASE-sensitive)

---

Thank you Oscar A. Perez!

I have just downloaded the files, I will report back with some measurements.

[Oscar A. Perez]

Paulgear,

Do you have the iLO Channel Interface driver loaded? I believe it is called hpilo in Linux.

Oscar

[paulgear]

Hi Oscar,

I'm pretty sure that's one of the drivers which is only available on the RPM-based distros.  Is the "ROMPaq" version one that can be uploaded through the iLO web interface?

[Jimmy Vance]

Lets, try this again........ My last reply didn't post for some reason

As Oscar stated, looks like the iLO channel interface driver isn't loaded. hpilo is included in the kerenl for SUSE and RHEL, I'm not sure what other distributions have picked it up.

A couple of workarounds. You can create the ROMPAQ USB key, or you can extract the ROM image from the .scexe file and load it via the iLO web interface. To extract the image run the .scexe with the "--unpack=directory/to/unpack/to. After you have the ROM image (CPQJ0612.B69) Login to the iLO web interface, drill down to Administration - Firmware. Select the file and upload.