New TrueNAS Mini XL+, drive temperatures REALLY HOT

[joeschmuck]

That is a terrible outcome. I too am sorry to hear that. Odds are very good that when you install four more drives, those temps will go up a lot.

If you desired to you should be able to purchase a small adapter cable that would take power from a power connector such as a 4 pin molex (if you have a 4 pin molex connecter in the case) and convert it to a 3 pin fan connector, then power your rear fan directly from 12VDC and it would be on full speed all the time. That would be an easy possible solution. Assuming you would rather do that than doing the IPMI.

 

[rlpowell]

FWIW, I put the NAS on the lowest shelf of my metal rack, instead of the top, and:

• sdf: 38 °C
• sdc: 43 °C
• sdd: 44 °C
• sde: 37 °C
• sda: 40 °C
• sdb: 39 °C

So, that's a thing. :D (Those are idle temps.)

 

[joeschmuck]

You don't have this in some kind of enclosure do you?

So, that's a thing. :D (Those are idle temps.)

That is a huge difference.

 

[jgreco]

Odds are very good that when you install four more drives, those temps will go up a lot.

I'm not convinced of that. I've seen examples where the design of the chassis is such that the airflow is imbalanced unless the designer's preconceived notions were met; one example would be the ubiquitous tray blank inserts in Supermicro (etc) rackmounts. I generally have an ill feeling anytime I see tightly stacked drives, but as long as there's room to encourage some airflow, even somewhat minimally, between the drives, it is likely to be okay with low wattage 5900RPM drives.

So it really depends on the chassis.

 

[joeschmuck]

So it really depends on the chassis.

I agree that it does depend on the chassis however in this particular situation given what photos I've seen of this model chassis, I don't think that will be the case, but that is why I said "Odds are" vice "They absolutely will" or similar. It was meant as a heads up to ensure that the drives are monitored carefully when the other four drives are installed. The fact that the computer was moved to a different location and the temps are much closer to normal makes me think that it was previously in some sort of air restricted cabinet so adding four more drives should be safe and I think the temps will go up a little bit but not even close to what they were previously.

 

[rlpowell]

You don't have this in some kind of enclosure do you?

That is a huge difference.

Nah, it's in a wire-frame shelving unit in my "closet" (it's really a small room), along with my servers. The place I *wanted* to put it was *above* my servers, and that's where the original temps came from.

 

[rlpowell]

I agree that it does depend on the chassis however in this particular situation given what photos I've seen of this model chassis, I don't think that will be the case, but that is why I said "Odds are" vice "They absolutely will" or similar. It was meant as a heads up to ensure that the drives are monitored carefully when the other four drives are installed. The fact that the computer was moved to a different location and the temps are much closer to normal makes me think that it was previously in some sort of air restricted cabinet so adding four more drives should be safe and I think the temps will go up a little bit but not even close to what they were previously.

I tested a bit with 8 drives in the system (4 active, 2 powered spares, 2 unpowered) and it didn't go up enough to matter. 8 active might be different, of course.

 

[Redcoat]

I infer that the issue here is that the ambient temperature "above" your "servers" is higher that the ambient below them, perhaps because your "servers" are themselves losing their heat to air which is rising in the "closet" by natural bouyancy and creating convection currents, pulling in cooler air from the floor (under the "closet" door?). Looks like the ambient air temperatures bottom to top could be at least 15C different?

 

[joeschmuck]

A closet or small room is a bad place to put servers unless you have adequate air exchange with air outside the closet. If you have louvered doors then maybe you could rig a 20" box fan (or anything) to push air into the bottom of the closet and the hot air would escape out the upper louvers. It's not as good as having the server outside of the closet but it would be better than no air exchange at all.

A long time ago I setup a computer used for unlocking all my satellite TV channels and it worked great. It would get very warm in the closet but it was a small system so heat generation was lite, but I did have to consider airflow to keep the computer at a reasonable temperature because even the small amount of heat it was generating would add up over many hours.

 

[rlpowell]

The door is always open; there is lots and lots of air exchange. The room is noticeably warmer than the adjacent room, but, like, only noticeably, not like a ton warmer.

In the second picture, the NAS is in the bottom right corner. This is inconvenient because the KVM cables don't reach that far, which is why it used to be to the left of the monitor, so now if something goes wrong and I need to see the console I have to power it off and move it.

I'm actually really surprised by the temp difference; the room only feels a few degrees warmer than the next room, I don't see how there can be that much range top-to-bottom. :shrug:

 

[joeschmuck]

That minor temperature differance does seem to be making a big difference. All those systems packed in there just doesn't promote good cooling. You might add a small floor fan to blow air into the bottom of the closet which should force the hotter air out the top. Well try a few different angles to blow the air into the space and give it some time to stabilize to see how it reacts.

That looks like it's difficult to use the printer, lol.

 

[Redcoat]

The door is always open; there is lots and lots of air exchange. The room is noticeably warmer than the adjacent room, but, like, only noticeably, not like a ton warmer.

In the second picture, the NAS is in the bottom right corner. This is inconvenient because the KVM cables don't reach that far, which is why it used to be to the left of the monitor, so now if something goes wrong and I need to see the console I have to power it off and move it.

I'm actually really surprised by the temp difference; the room only feels a few degrees warmer than the next room, I don't see how there can be that much range top-to-bottom. :shrug:

Thanks for keeping us enaged with update info:

Question: is the XL+ in the bottom picture on its side? This would create a different thermal environment for the individual drives than if they were "stacked". Was the XL+ in the same orientation when it was "on the top shelf" as it is now?

Question: have you considered measuring the temperatures and, particularly the top to bottom temperature gradients, in the closet? It would be helpful to eliminate the "shrug".

 

[rlpowell]

That looks like it's difficult to use the printer, lol.

Yes that was a terrible mistake. :D

 

[rlpowell]

Thanks for keeping us enaged with update info:

Honestly I really thought everyone would be bored by now.

Question: is the XL+ in the bottom picture on its side? This would create a different thermal environment for the individual drives than if they were "stacked". Was the XL+ in the same orientation when it was "on the top shelf" as it is now?

No, it was upright before, and yeah, that's probably relevant; I can't put it upright where it is now, though.

Question: have you considered measuring the temperatures and, particularly the top to bottom temperature gradients, in the closet? It would be helpful to eliminate the "shrug".

Yeah, I probably should.

 

[wdp]

I am having a similar issue. WD Golds in this instance in a Mini XL+. Stock configuration and freshly inserted drives on a new build. Relatively cool ambient room temp, below 18-21C avg.

It's almost impressive how hot the drives are at idle. My avg is 53, my max is 62 (2nd drive from the top) and min is 45 (bottom). So it's definitely density pressure and rising heat in the stack.

It's a bummer cause its a relatively unique chassis layout. I assume Golds will get me flagged for incompatible drives or something.

Anybody have some tips to drop this thing about 10 degrees into a comfort zone? Seems like a lot to ask.

I have a 3U 12 bay diy that's idle at 30, granted thats a small jet engine collection of fan noise. The WD Red pros (8TB) in the Synolgoy 6 bay on the floor that the XL+ is supposed to replace run about 30 degrees cooler.

 

[Davvo]

Place a big fan in front of it.

 

[joeschmuck]

Anybody have some tips to drop this thing about 10 degrees into a comfort zone? Seems like a lot to ask.

I do not have one of those cases however if you could install one or two cardboard cutout homemade ducts to direct the airflow across the hard drives, or install some aid flow dams to stop air from passing buy the hard drives, that could be very beneficial. Nothing has to be permanent to just give it a try. I have two pieces of foam hot water pipe insulation stuffed into the vertical sides of the front of my case in order to for airflow directly into the hard drive path and not around it which was the original least path of resistance. Wish I have a photo here at work but i don't.

Think outside the box. The cardboard thing works great, I have that incorporated to direct airflow across the motherboard components in another computer. I just felt like they could benefit from some better airflow. Tape or zipties are easy to use.