MicroServer Gen8 is noisy

[subsix]

I only had that high fan speeds with much older firmware versions. We run two of these machines in two separate offices and have fan speeds between 10 and 16%, not quite silent but much better than what we were faced with initially.

Firmware Version Info:
HP ProLiant System ROM 06/06/2014
HP ProLiant System ROM - Backup 11/09/2013
HP ProLiant System ROM Bootblock 02/04/2012
iLO 2.03 Nov 07 2014
Server Platform Services (SPS) Firmware 2.2.0.31.2
System Programmable Logic Device Version 0x06 

Configuration:

We have the B120i switched into AHCI mode and three disks on each (WD Red resp. Black, Sandisk SSD, one HP disk each as Backup) plus an unsupported special PCIE card in one of the Microservers. OS is Solaris resp. OpenIndiana.

Wonder what you're doing differently...

Peter

[c0mm0n]

Maybe not in AHCI, there's a 3rd mode (Legacy ?)

[ThePixel]

I'm thinking of getting the HP ProLiant Gen8 G1610T MicroServer

I want to use it as  a media NAS, as well as general storage, as a result of this it will be sitting in my living room.

I'm going to leave the Intel Celeron G1610T in there as well as the 2GB RAM but also add an extra 4GB Stick I have laying around.

Possibly running FreeNAS or some other OS designed to work as a Media/NAS Maybe Server 2008 R2 or 2012 R2 if I have a spare license.

How loud can I expect this thing to get when it's left running?

I'm only used to dealing with large servers in a server rack etc, sounding like jet engines etc.

I plan on installing 4 drives possibly the WD Red 1TB drives in RAID10 or RAID5 Not decided yet.

But I'm also wondering if I could get a SSD in there as well, as I wont be using a CD ROM Drive at all. The SSD would have the OS installed on it.

[c0mm0n]

My buying advice if noise is an issue to you : stick to the officially supported OS or the ones with b120i support and don't use the AHCI mode.

ie : RHEL, ESXI, Windows, Ubuntu 14 with package, others I may not have heard of (you probably can use Xen too)

With these, you can reach the 6% fan slience mode (could have been in my living room on on my desk)

Otherwise, the fan will be very noticeable permanently (I was at 21% at best with Proxmox), depends on your setup/needs.

PS : also keep in mind G9 is coming this year.

[DonSimon]

HI guys,

I have recently bought a Microserver Gen8 G2020T running XPEnology. To do so i am using AHCI mode and you already feel it coming, it makes quite a noise.

I looked into the ROM version and i see the following:

System ROM J06

System ROM Date 11/09/2013

When i go to the HP website to see if there's a new rom i get one of which the version is stated:

2013.11.09 (A)
21 Feb 2014

so which date is this? is it the same or the better version. Or should i install the ROM given by Oscar? 

Can some1 please provide me with info which file i can upload using the iLO interface.. ?

Fingers cross someone still reads this topic.

EDIT: 

I unpacked the .EXE from this link:

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/km/search#q=c04226727&t=All&sort=relevancy&numberOfResults=25

CPQJ0612.CC6 uploaded using the iLO interface and now it states the 6/6/2014 version.  Fan dropped from 33% to 25%. Will see if this makes a noticable difference when i am at home.

[Amulos]

hi all

i usualy just read forums, but wanted to share that the microserver gen 8 i've got is amost silent running in AHCI mode with 1610t 10gb ram with 4 drives, an old 500gb WD caviar as boot, 2tb seagate sshd as the VM store and a 3tb WD green with an old seagate 320gb as some extra space. its running server 2012 r2 with 2 vms on the go 

the fan usually sits at 6-9% dependant on the ambient temp in my lounge , with usual household noise levels its silent, when its the middle of night its barely audible.

have i just been lucky?

[der_burner]

Yes you are a Lucky man!! My is still very loud.

Did you do any options on Bios?

[Erathiel]

Are you 100% certain it's running in AHCI mode? Perhaps you've installed some drivers available for Windows Server 2012r2?

[Amulos]

hi- definitely running in AHCI 100% certain, i used Intelligent provisioning install windows server 2012 r2.

just ugraded from 10gb ram to 16gb and the fan is still running at 9%, happy to post pics of bios setting if that would help

[VasiC]

Gen8 MicroServer in AHCI mode, 2 HDD, Win Server 2012 R2 Standard x64

Running BIOS 11/09/2013 and hacked/modified ILO4 firmware 1.32

Ambient Temp 23C

Fan speed: 15%

Then upgraded to BIOS 06/06/2014 (no change to the ILO firmware)

Ambient Temp 23C

Fan speed: 8%

VERY important: update the ILO4 firmware to the hacked/modified version from an inferior version, so downgrade your current ILO4 firmware to a version lower then 1.32 and then to the hacked/modified 1.32 version. In between it may be necessary to update to the official 1.32 version before upgrading this one to the hacked/modified 1.32 version, not sure how exactly I did it back then as it was over a year ago. I am saying this because I can remember upgrading from a version back then to the modified/hacked 1.32 directly and did not get the lower fan speeds, only after first downgrading and then upgrading to the modified/hacked 1.32 version.

Just give it a try. Good luck.

[VasiC]

UPDATE: At 22C ambient temp the fan is spinning at 7%, the box is dead silent.

Again, i am in non-RAID AHCI mode

So it is possible guys, just keep trying swaping between lower versions of ILO 1.32 and ILO 1.32 modified/hacked version.

Good luck.

[ad-d]

I'm surpised but very glad Vasic's posts are still here, previously any mention of the 'adjusted' ilo led to the posts being removed, hopefully HP have leant this is essential information for some people that needs to be left visible.  Anyone loading the 'adjusted' ilo firmware has clearly accepted responsibility for any potential problems and we don't need HP 'protecting' us by removing these sorts of posts.

Glad to hear of your experiences, your results exactly match the fan speed calculations I'd done so that's great :)  What are your drive temps like though after extended usage?  Can you set up some data copies between all the drives and see how drive temps look after a few hours at the lower fan speeds?  I don't tend to do disk transfers over extended periods like that and I do have cool running 5900rpm drives so sure I'd be fine but it's good information for people to have.  'CrystalDiskInfo' or similar programs will give the drive temps from within Windows.

I won't get a chance for at least the next month but sounds like I need to look into switching to AHCI with the modded ilo on the second Gen8 microserver I recently bought.  With 8GB ram, i3-3240T CPU upgrade and this adjusted ilo I'm really hoping to end up with the quiet, quick and well built server I always knew it could be.  Just wish I'd bought the cheap low TDP Xeon I came across a while back, would have preferred running the slower fan speeds with a cooler chip below the HDD cage but I'm sure the i3 will be OK, doesn't get that hot.  Just need to upgrade some of the 4TB to 8TB drives now...

[ad-d]

70% is high, that's going to be very very loud!

29 degrees is a high ambient so that will certainly speed the fans up (for reference in AHCI with just one SSD attached for testing I was getting 13% fan speed at 23 degrees but a much louder 28% fan speed at 29 degrees - more than double).

There are a few things that will push up the fan speed so I'd concentrate on these areas and maybe remove some components when testing to find the cause:

1) Fan speeds seem to be linked to ambient temperature so the cooler you can keep the server the better, for example at the same ambient temperature of 24 degrees during testing I found the fan speed kept to exactly the same speed regardless of CPU load.  Sat idle at 24 degrees fan speed was 14%, after 50mins running Prime95 'in-place large FFTs' ambient was still 24 degrees fan speed was still 14%.  After 1 hour 40mins fan speed had increased to 15% but ambient had also raised to 25 degrees.  Coretemp showed the max temps for cpu cores had hit 55/56 during the testing but fan speed seems only bothered by ambient temperatures (oddly ilo sensor for CPU was shown as 40 degrees during the entire test - surprising but I'm not complaining, CPU easily kept cool enough).

2) Do you have any add in cards?  Apparently adding a pci-e card will push up temperatures (unless it's a supported HP card it can't read the temperatures so increases fan speed to ensure eveything stays cool)

3) What hard drives are you using in the server?  Would seem some hard drive temperature sensors do not report their temperature in a way that the HP ilo can read properly, these incompatible drives are read as having a really high temperature so the ilo ramps up the fan speed a lot thinking the drives need urgent cooling.  Your drive temps are listed as 54 degrees which seems rather high, good chance this is the problem.  Check the ilo and see which drive is reading so high, try removing that drive and power the server back on as a test, fan speed likely to be a lot less.  For example the 'Corsair Neutron 240GB GTX' is a drive that apparently does not work well with the Gen8 Microserver and gives a minimum 50% fan speed when used.

There could be other reasons for higher fan speeds I've forgotten but that high HDD temp reading and the high ambient temperature will definitely give you a very noisy server, I'd concentrate on those areas first.  If you're getting approx 50% fan speed due to incompatible HDD then adding a high ambient temperature which also vastly increases fan speed there's every chance that could equal 70%

Good luck.

[ad-d]

Where is that 2.5 inch drive located in the case?  If it's a normal HDD and it's up in the CD bay area there's very little cooling up there and drive will get very hot, maybe it really is reaching 54 degrees.  I'd only recommend an SSD up there that run a lot cooler.  Try moving the drive somewhere else eg next to the drive cage where there is airflow.

[ad-d]

OK great, glad that helped, for anyone else experiencing higher than expected fan speeds it's a good place to start as well.

Not sure why you say it's not recommended to run the SSD 24/7 though, newer SSDs are designed for such high data workloads that you should be OK running the SSD as the OS disk for many many years before ever experiencing any issues, in fact they should be more reliable than spinning disks.  Given how slow the Gen8 Microserver is to get through the BIOS startup and how long Server 2012 R2 takes to load I wouldn't dream of using anything but an SSD personally.

[ad-d]

Will not get a chance for weeks to do any proper tests with HDDs installed etc but I did quickly load the 'adjusted' ilo firmware on my second server over the weekend.  Very brief test if it responded as expected and it certainly seems to have dropped fan speeds to the values expected, for anyone interested:

Ambient:            Fan speed (ilo 1.40):           Fan speed (ilo 1.32 'adjusted' actual results):

23                                        13%                                             8%

24                                        14%                                             8%

25                                        15%                                             9%

To be honest 8% doesn't really sound much quieter than 13% but at these levels it's reasonably quiet, the biggest improvements would be at higher ambient temperatures:

Ambient:            Fan speed (ilo 1.40):           Fan speed (ilo 1.32 'adjusted' calculated results):

28                                        25%                                             15%

29                                        28%                                             16.8%

At 28/29 degrees the fan speed should be running 10% lower or more, that should be very noticeable.  Obviously if you do decide to try this out keep an eye on your HDD temperatures until you're happy they will stay at safe temperatures with the workload you subject your disks to and the reduced airflow.  If you have fast spinning 'hot' HDDs, constantly write to the drives 24/7 and have a high ambient temperature this may not be a sensible setup for you!

[markog]

Crazy thing happend to me and my HP Gen8. I have just refreshed my BIOS ROM with the acutal version and my FAN Speed dropped from 25% to 14%...

I am using AHCI with 2 x 3 TB Sata HDDs

[llaumgui]

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@ad-d wrote:
ilo 1.32 'adjusted'

---

Where to find this version ? When I search on Google I find only chiness websites...

[ad-d]

For anyone still interested I briefly used the recent hot weather to get some more readings:

Ambient:            Fan speed (ilo 1.32 'adjusted' actual results):

30                          18%
31                          21%

Didn't bother flashing the server back to the 1.40 ilo to give a comparison.

[DannyBiker]

My Gen8 is running Proxmix (not in AHCI or Legacy, I specifally avoided those modes to avoid fan noise)...and of course, Proxmox being Debian-based and not officially supported, I get a constant noisy 30 to 40% in iLO. I'm at the latest of everything I guess (flashed the latest Service Pack, updated the iLO firmware)...but nothing helped.

So was this ever fixed officially or is there a workaround ? Whether it's flashing a firmware, activating something through the command line in Proxmox or using a modified firmware (which can't be found anywhere anyway), I don't care. I just don't want to have to rebuilt my all setup just for this.

Thank you ! :)

[Jimmy Vance]

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@DannyBiker wrote:

My Gen8 is running Proxmix (not in AHCI or Legacy, I specifally avoided those modes to avoid fan noise)

---

So what mode are you running in? B120i? Without the 'hpvsa' driver you're basically in AHCI mode.

If you install the latest System ROM and iLO firmware the fan should run around 13-17%

Right now the system sitting next to me has an ambient inlet temp of 24c and the fan is at 14% the controller is set to AHCI

System ROM 06/06/2014

iLO v2.20

[DannyBiker]

Yes, B120i. I'm running the latest iLO (2.20, right ?) as for the firmware, I'm at 11/09/2013. I never understood how to update it. Through Intelligent Provisioning, I'm said to be up to date. And on the HP websites...well ,you know how they are, you can't find anything.

As for the hpvsa driver, is it something activated through a HP update or through a Proxmox/Debian command ?

Thanks for the help.

[Jimmy Vance]

B120i RAID reqiures a driver that doesn't ship with any Linux distribution. The driver is available for several Red Hat and SUSE Enterprise Linux versions.  The 'hpvsa' driver provides the RAID stack for the controller, without the driver the controller is operating as an AHCI SATA controller.

Updating the system ROM to 06/06/2014 will reduce your fan speed

It's not that hard to get navigate to the ROM, Here is a link to the latest ROM 

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=5390291&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=4144

{Admin:Above link is no longer valid]

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/km/search#q=B120i%20RAID%20driver%20MicroServer%20Gen8&t=All&sort=relevancy&numberOfResults=25

(Yes it's for Ubuntu, but it's the same file across OS's)

This is a self extracting Windows file, once you extract the files, you can either create the USB key with the included utility, or use the iLO web interface to update the ROM. The ROM filename is CPQJ0612.CC6