Dell PE R420, H310 it mode, fans running at 30% 6000 - 9000rpm

[Dave Hob]

Hi

I have this Dell PowerEdge R420 and when I use the H310 flashed to it mode in it, the fans will be running at 30% (6000 - 9000rpm). Normally they are around 10% ~3000rpm or less.

I have 2 other cards H310 mini raid and H710 mini raid and when I installed them fans run normally at 10%.

The H310 it mode (actually have 2 of them) are flashed using the following guide:

https://fohdeesha.com/docs/perc/

Does anyone have any suggestions? or a similar experience?

Thank you

 

[SeedyRom]

I posted more details in this thread but here is the command you need to fix this. You'll just need to SSH into the iDRAC to run it.

racadm set system.thermalsettings.ThirdPartyPCIFanResponse 0

 

[Dave Hob]

I posted more details in this thread but here is the command you need to fix this. You'll just need to SSH into the iDRAC to run it.

racadm set system.thermalsettings.ThirdPartyPCIFanResponse 0

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to this, even if it's been a long time since I've open this thread.

I will test this and confirm, when I checked earlier I think it disabled already and that might still be an issue. I'm pretty sure I did this and it helped when I was inserting a new pcie card that was nvme m2 adapter, so the fans do not start anymore when I insert the pcie card but they still start when I replace the H710 with the H310 I get the fan issue.

Thank you!

 

[SeedyRom]

No problem. I was scouring the internet looking for someone else who had solved this issue but it seems nobody had a solution. I had a clue on which direction to look but I ended up having to read through Dell's documentation to figure this out.

 

[JaimieV]

Nice find - filed away for when this bites me at some point, which it no doubt will given how useful and cheap old Dell rack servers are.

 

[Elmojo]

Hi all,
Sorry to dig up this old thread, but I'm having this exact same issue with my Dell T420, and can't seem to get it under control.
I had previously found the way to make the fan speed static, but wasn't comfortable with that.
Running across this thread, with SeedyRom's racadm command to bypass the PCIe card check seemed like exactly what I needed!
So I went back into my terminal and re-enabled the auto fan control. As expected, the fan ramped back up to around 30%.
Then I SSH'd into the racadm and ran that command. It came back with something along the lines of "command successful", but the fans stayed at 30%.
Before I flashed my H310 (causing the "3rd party" situation), I could almost never hear the fan running once the machine was fully booted.
Did I do something wrong? I would REALLY like to have the auto fan control back if possible.

 

[SeedyRom]

Hi all,
Sorry to dig up this old thread, but I'm having this exact same issue with my Dell T420, and can't seem to get it under control.
I had previously found the way to make the fan speed static, but wasn't comfortable with that.
Running across this thread, with SeedyRom's racadm command to bypass the PCIe card check seemed like exactly what I needed!
So I went back into my terminal and re-enabled the auto fan control. As expected, the fan ramped back up to around 30%.
Then I SSH'd into the racadm and ran that command. It came back with something along the lines of "command successful", but the fans stayed at 30%.
Before I flashed my H310 (causing the "3rd party" situation), I could almost never hear the fan running once the machine was fully booted.
Did I do something wrong? I would REALLY like to have the auto fan control back if possible.

Sorry to hear it isn't working. Try running these commands and reply back with the output:

racadm getsensorinfo

racadm get system.thermalsettings

Also, make sure your firmware is up to date. If you run racadm getsysinfo -r -s, you should see Firmware Version = 2.65.65.65 and System BIOS Version = 2.9.0

 

[Elmojo]

Thanks for the reply!
Here's my getsensorinfo output:

Code:

Sensor Type : POWER
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>                 <Type>
PS1 Status                      Present                  AC
PS2 Status                      Present                  AC

Sensor Type : TEMPERATURE
<Sensor Name>            <Status>    <Reading> <lc> <uc>  <lnc>[R/W]  <unc>[R/W]
[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#SystemBoardInletTemp]
System Board Inlet Temp       Ok      21C      -7C  47C      3C [Y]      42C [Y]

[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#CPU1Temp]
CPU1 Temp                     Ok      36C      3C   91C      8C [N]      86C [N]

[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#CPU2Temp]
CPU2 Temp                     Ok      30C      3C   91C      8C [N]      86C [N]



Sensor Type : FAN
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <Reading>   <lc>        <uc>                                                                                                                                                                     <PWM %>
System Board Sys Fan1           Ok          1200RPM     240RPM      NA                                                                                                                                                                       15%

Sensor Type : VOLTAGE
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <Reading>           <lc>        <uc>                                                                                                                                                            
CPU1 MEM VTT PG                 Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
System Board 3.3V PG            Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
System Board 5V PG              Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU2 MEM VDDQ PG                Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU2 MEM VTT PG                 Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU1 MEM VDDQ PG                Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU2 VTT PG                     Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU1 VTT PG                     Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU2 PLL PG                     Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU1 VCORE PG                   Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU2 VCORE PG                   Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU1 PLL PG                     Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
System Board 1.1V PG            Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
System Board 1.5V PG            Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
System Board PS1 PG Fail        Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
System Board PS2 PG Fail        Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU2 VSA PG                     Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU1 VSA PG                     Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
PS1 Voltage 1                   Ok          120.00V             NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
PS2 Voltage 2                   Ok          120.00V             NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
System Board BP1 5V PG          Ok          Good                NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              

Sensor Type : CURRENT
<Sensor Name>            <Status>    <Reading> <lc> <uc>  <lnc>[R/W]  <unc>[R/W]
[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#PS1Current1]
PS1 Current 1                 Ok      0.2Amps  NA   NA       0Amps [N]      0Amp                                                                                                                                                             s [N]

[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#PS2Current2]
PS2 Current 2                 Ok      0.0Amps  NA   NA       0Amps [N]      0Amp                                                                                                                                                             s [N]

[Key = iDRAC.Embedded.1#SystemBoardPwrConsumption]
System Board Pwr Consumption  Ok      112Watts NA   644Watts 0Watts [N]      588                                                                                                                                                             Watts [Y]


Sensor Type : PROCESSOR
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <State>             <lc>        <uc>                                                                                                                                                            
CPU1 Status                     Ok          Presence_Detected   NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
CPU2 Status                     Ok          Presence_Detected   NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              

Sensor Type : MEMORY
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <State>             <lc>        <uc>                                                                                                                                                            
DIMM A1                         Ok          Presence_Detected   NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
DIMM A2                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
DIMM A3                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
DIMM A4                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
DIMM A5                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
DIMM A6                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
DIMM B1                         Ok          Presence_Detected   NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
DIMM B2                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
DIMM B3                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
DIMM B4                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
DIMM B5                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              
DIMM B6                         N/A         Absent              NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              

Sensor Type : BATTERY
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <Reading>           <lc>        <uc>                                                                                                                                                            
System Board CMOS Battery       Ok          Present             NA          NA                                                                                                                                                              

Sensor Type : PERFORMANCE
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>    <State>        <lc>      <uc>
System Board Power Optimized    Ok          Not Degraded   NA        NA

Sensor Type : INTRUSION
<Sensor Name>                   <Intrusion>    <Status>
System Board Intrusion          Closed         Power ON

Sensor Type : REDUNDANCY
<Sensor Name>                   <Status>                 <Type>
System Board PS Redundancy      Full Redundant           PSU

and here's the output from system.thermalsettings:

Code:

[Key=system.Embedded.1#ThermalSettings.1]
FanSpeedOffset=Off
ThermalProfile=Default Thermal Profile Settings
ThirdPartyPCIFanResponse=Disabled

Please note that I currently have the machine set back to manual fan control, 15% so that I can work in the room. :)
I've discovered that if I set things back to fully automatic, it does fluctuate a bit, so I know it's doing something, but it always stays high, like it thinks the CPUs or HDDs are running really hot. Is there any way to tune the targets to allow a warmer "normal" temp maybe?

Oh, and yes, I'm on FW 2.65.65.65 and BIOS 2.9.0.
Thanks!

 

[SeedyRom]

Thanks for the reply!
Here's my getsensorinfo output:

Sorry for the delayed response. I spent some time testing and I was able to recreate the issue using the settings you posted. I was able to recreate the issue by changing the system profile in BIOS to "Performance". There are three configurations that I found did work:

1. Reboot into BIOS and set the system profile to "Performance Per Watt" while leaving ThermalProfile to "Default"
2. Run the command racadm set system.ThermalSettings.ThermalProfile 2 to set the ThermalProfile to "Minimum Power" and then do a full reboot of the machine. Leave BIOS system profile set to "Performance"
3. Set BIOS system profile to "Performance Per Watt" and set ThermalProfile to "Minimum Power"

I'll attach the information I found that led me to this. What I discovered is that there are two different profile options. System Profile in BIOS and Thermal Profile in iDRAC.

For System Profile, Performance sets a higher base fan speed. Performance Per Watt uses a lower speed (the one we're looking for)

But, Thermal Profile is acting as an override to the BIOS system profile. There are three options for Thermal Profile:

• Maximum Power - Ignores the system profile and uses the higher base fan speed setting
• Default (The option you are set to) - Allow the BIOS system profile to decide the base fan speed
• Minimum Power - Ignores the system profile and uses the lower base fan speed setting

Hopefully this solves the issue for you. Please be sure to let us know if this fixes the issue or if you continue to have the same problem.

 

[Elmojo]

Thanks so much for the detailed instructions! I'll absolutely go back and check, but I was in those settings previously, and I'm failry sure mine was already set to "Performance per Watt" and "Minimum Power". It's certainly possible they might have gotten reset to defaults at some point during all the things I was trying, so I'll dig back in there and take a peek. :) I'll be sure to report back with an update. Thanks again!

 

[SeedyRom]

Thanks so much for the detailed instructions! I'll absolutely go back and check, but I was in those settings previously, and I'm failry sure mine was already set to "Performance per Watt" and "Minimum Power". It's certainly possible they might have gotten reset to defaults at some point during all the things I was trying, so I'll dig back in there and take a peek. :) I'll be sure to report back with an update. Thanks again!

It's been a little while and I was looking at documenting this as a solution. Can you confirm if this fixed your issues?

 

[Dave Hob]

It's been a little while and I was looking at documenting this as a solution. Can you confirm if this fixed your issues?

it's been a while, but I don't think it fixed the problem.

 

[Brezlord]

Check out my blog on controlling fans on Dell servers here.