Unknown python script running every minute-cpu spikes

[nick779]

Im not sure if this is normal behavior or not, but my new FreeNAS box (in sig) has been running solid for a few days now, just about everything works how I want it to. The problem im seeing is that every minute on the dot, an unknown python script runs (as reported from top) runs with a random pid causing a 10% cpu spike which for some reason spins up my fans. Besides this being annoying, im sure its accelerating wear on my fans, and its very distracting as this box is in a populated room.

Is there any way for me to track this down and potentially reduce how often it runs? Ive tried changing the behavior of my fans but that hasnt seemed to help.

 

[cyberjock]

Do you do replication? There's several scripts that run every minute, and changing their frequency is not something I'd recommend as other things may depend on that frequency.

Fans aren't appreciably affected by spinning up and down, so I wouldn't worry about that at all. Starting and stopping can wear them out, but once spinning they don't really wear out much faster, especially for the few seconds that they would spin up to.

As for the annoyance, I can bet it gets annoying. But what's the temp of your CPU? Can you post the output of "sysctl -a | grep temperature"? The reason I ask is because it sounds like your system may already be running too hot (insufficient cooling?) and this problem with the fan spinning is an indicator of a different problem than a script running every minute.

 

[nick779]

Do you do replication? There's several scripts that run every minute, and changing their frequency is not something I'd recommend as other things may depend on that frequency.

Fans aren't appreciably affected by spinning up and down, so I wouldn't worry about that at all. Starting and stopping can wear them out, but once spinning they don't really wear out much faster, especially for the few seconds that they would spin up to.

As for the annoyance, I can bet it gets annoying. But what's the temp of your CPU? Can you post the output of "sysctl -a | grep temperature"? The reason I ask is because it sounds like your system may already be running too hot (insufficient cooling?) and this problem with the fan spinning is an indicator of a different problem than a script running every minute.

sysctl -a | grep temperature
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0.temperature: 27.8C
hw.acpi.thermal.tz1.temperature: 29.8C
dev.cpu.0.temperature: 30.0C
dev.cpu.1.temperature: 31.0C

Even under a 100% load doing plex transcoding it barely goes over 45C, the South bridge stays pretty low as well as reported by the IPMI.

No replication is set up yet. Plex is running.

Just noticed that Plex has a setting called DLNA Media Renderer Discovery interval and its set to 60. im going to turn off the jail and see if it persists.

 

[cyberjock]

So temps look fine. What you might want to do is go into the BIOS and see what the fan settings are. If they are overly conservative that could be your problem. I just checked my FreeNAS Mini and it's at 43C and has been idle for hours and hours.

You could simply turn off the fan auto-speed adjust and just set it to a constant speed.

 

[nick779]

So temps look fine. What you might want to do is go into the BIOS and see what the fan settings are. If they are overly conservative that could be your problem. I just checked my FreeNAS Mini and it's at 43C and has been idle for hours and hours.

You could simply turn off the fan auto-speed adjust and just set it to a constant speed.

It wasnt plex, im still getting the spikes without the jail running.

My bios doesnt have those options. After doing some reading I have the crappy Supermicro fan profiles and nothing more. I had to edit the H/L thresholds with IPMIUTIL to make the BMC not throw errors when the fans hit 700rpm, but I cant find a way to make them stay where I want to.

I can do 4 options: (Supermicro support was not very helpful when it came to describing the differences between these profiles)
Full- 100% - in my case this would be 2x 2600rpm and 1x 2800rpm
Optimal - power savings setting - my fans idle at 700rpm
Standard - standard cooling - my fans idle at 700rpm
Heavy I/O - no clue what this does

 

[Chris Dawalt]

I checked my system and it too has little spikes of about 5% at roughly 1 minute increments. All 6 cores are 34.5 C at idle. I started several large file transfers between all 3 of my NAS drives and my PC and the temps went to 38.6 C. The CPU usage stayed below 20%. The CPU cooler is a Thermaltake BigTyp Revo.

 

[nick779]

I checked my system and it too has little spikes of about 5% at roughly 1 minute increments. All 6 cores are 34.5 C at idle. I started several large file transfers between all 3 of my NAS drives and my PC and the temps went to 38.6 C. The CPU usage stayed below 20%. The CPU cooler is a Thermaltake BigTyp Revo.

Its just frustrating, because I cant detect any substantial spike in CPU temperature while this script is running to cause the fans to spin up. I hate to spend even more money on fans, but thats where im at with this. For the time being im testing out the "optimal" fan profile and we will go from there.

 

[Chris Dawalt]

Do you have any other fans you can test? I am not so sure that a different fan would perform any better so if you can test before you buy.

What cooler are you using?
Do you have any sys fans plugged into the motherboard - if so, how do they perform?

 

[nick779]

Do you have any other fans you can test? I am not so sure that a different fan would perform any better so if you can test before you buy.

What cooler are you using?
Do you have any sys fans plugged into the motherboard - if so, how do they perform?

Stock intel cooler with Arctic cooling MX4 paste which seems to do fine. Has yet to go over 50c doing anything. Idling at 28c now, spikes to 37c when the script runs and almost instantly dips back down to 28c.
I have 4 PWM fans plugged in right now.
Case fans are 1x Corsair SP120 from an H105 (2800rpm version)
2x Scythe grand flex PWM (2400rpm)
All idle at 700rpm.

Im tossing around the idea of getting a 2-4 Noctua NF - F12 or P12s, theyre around $20 each. Id rather spend the money of RAM, but this is really irritating. I wonder if an inexpensive aftermarket heatsink would prevent the temp spike much better.

 

[Chris Dawalt]

So all the fans spike, or just the CPU fan?

 

[nick779]

From what I can see, its everything but the CPU fan. Which is strange because FAN1- FAN4 are supposed to be based off of the CPU temp. FANA is the only one based off of the system temp according to my manual.

The hottest reading I have is the PCH which I believe is the south bridge. it Sits at 40c but doesnt budge with the cpu spikes.

I really would like to keep the PWM functionality available so it can throttle up if necessary, but im starting to think it might not be an option and I may just have to wire the fans directly to the PSU and use a LNA with them.

 

[Chris Dawalt]

PWM and non PWM fans should work fine. If the fan headers are 4 pin, both fan styles should be ok to use and still have speed control abilities. You mentioned that you tried the other BIOS settings you referenced earlier? Do you have the latest BIOS update? You may also check to see if there is a forum for your motherboard manufacturer and see if there is anything posted there. And the forums at Anandtech are good too.

 

[Chris Dawalt]

According to the SuperMicro website, you motherboard has the following capabilities under the PC Health Monitoring category. But it is hard to tell if these are through the BIOS or through software utilities via the OS (Windows, Linux, etc).

PC Health Monitoring

Voltage

• Monitors for CPU Cores, +12V, +3.3V, +5V, +5V Standby, VBAT, HT, Memory, Chipset Voltages.
• 5-Phase-switching voltage regulator with auto-sense from 0.8375V-1.60V

FAN

• Total of five 4-pin fan headers supporting up to 5 fans
• 5x fans with tachometer status monitoring
• Status monitor for speed control
• Status monitor for on/off control
• Support 3-pin fans (w/o speed control)
• Low noise fan speed control
• Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) fan connectors

Temperature

• Monitoring for CPU and chassis environment
• CPU thermal trip support
• FC temperature sensing logic
• Thermal Monitor 2 (TM2) support
• PECI

LED

• CPU / System Overheat LED
• +5V Standby alert LED

Other Features

• Chassis intrusion detection
• Chassis intrusion header

 

[Chris Dawalt]

I looked into it a little more.

Fan Control - section 1-11 from your manual states:
Fan status monitoring with firmware 4-pin fan speed control via IPMI interface

Section 1-14 has more details on the fan controls, and section B-2 shows the software interface which is of course no use without using Windows...

 

[nick779]

I looked into it a little more.

Fan Control - section 1-11 from your manual states:
Fan status monitoring with firmware 4-pin fan speed control via IPMI interface

Section 1-14 has more details on the fan controls, and section B-2 shows the software interface which is of course no use without using Windows...

I have ipmi already configured. There's only 4 profiles available for fan control as I described above. No specific controls.

 

[Ericloewe]

Yeah, I don't know of any way to get some decent fan control. IPMI doesn't seem to expose anything beyond the sensors and the (seemingly proprietary) fan mode selection.

Of course, if anyone knows of something I might be missing, feel free to PM me, so I can research it and add it to the FAQ. Proper fan controls would be cool (pun not intended).

 

[nick779]

Yeah, im not too happy about having to use single RPM fans, but im swapping all the PWM fans for some 800RPM Gentle Typhoons I came across.

 

[Chris Dawalt]

While the FreeNAS Gods may frown upon my choice of motherboards, I have to say that the BIOS fan controls work well. I think there were two or three options; I picked the mildest one and it works rather well.

 

[nick779]

While the FreeNAS Gods may frown upon my choice of motherboards, I have to say that the BIOS fan controls work well. I think there were two or three options; I picked the mildest one and it works rather well.

And theres nothing really wrong with it. Everything ive read just points to potential issues with speed, overall stability, and redundancy when using consumer boards.
My entire desktop build uses 6w more than the Latitude 6410 laptop I was testing Freenas on, and thats with the screen off, 3 less drives, half the ram etc etc.

Regardless, my issue above will hopefully be rectified with these fans. I just wonder if a better heatsink would have minimized the spikes

 

[Chris Dawalt]

Heat sinks? Well, I do computer hardware reviews for a website and I currently have a number of them in my inventory. Let me know if you have anything in mind. I did cases last year. Sold all but one. As for fans, I have noticed how some will behave differently than others. So far the best ones I have used are the Cooler Master JetFlo fans. They are loud when they spool up, but they move a lot of air (95CFM).