iDRAC9: impossible to modify Fan Response for 3rd Party PCI cards

Hello

Please send a private message with your service tag to ensure we have all appropriate information on your system.

Thanks

Hi Daniel,

I just sent you a private message with out Service Tag.

Hope you could help!

Cheers,
Michael

Thank you a lot Daniel!

Out T640 is now much quieter. For those interesting in the solution, here is the list of required 'racadm' commands:

racadm get System.PCIESlotLFM // List all available PCI slots
// For us, only the third one was of interest
racadm set System.PCIESlotLFM.3.LFMMode 2 // Custom

After a reboot, all the PCI fans were running at 12%, which is almost inaudible.

We also tried to modify this property using the iDRAC WebGUI as mentionned here. We were able to see that the 'PCIe Airflow Settings' was set to 'Custom' on the startpage, but there was no modifiable option in Cooling ->Fan Overview -> Configure Fans.

We still have a question: After setting the LFMMode to 'Custom' or 'Disabled', can you ensure that the fan will still adapt their speed to the temperature, as they should normally do?

Anyway, thank you again for your very helpful response.
Cheers,
Michael

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@Michael.A wrote:
We still have a question: After setting the LFMMode to 'Custom' or 'Disabled', can you ensure that the fan will still adapt their speed to the temperature, as they should normally do?

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This is answered in FAQ number 3 of the 14G thermal document linked previously. There are no configuration options available that will allow you to stop normal fan response from occurring. The options available only allow you to stop the potential over-cooling of third party fan response or create a custom over-cooling. No option will allow you to stop or reduce fan response below normal operation levels.

Thanks

I tried this thread on our R7415 but to no avail.

We have an R7415 with a really like GT730 GPU in it that came out of an R630 and functioned fine but on this model I can't get it to put the fans at any less than 100% it just refuses to accept any other value. 

I've contacted Dell pro support who tell me there is an ipmi command but the software team are not willing to share it.  

Any ideas would be really helpful.

@ChrisWilson2019 

The LFM option discussed in this thread allows you to disable extra cooling. When unsupported hardware is installed that the iDRAC does not have a thermal profile for it will be cautious and over-cool. If you don't feel that is necessary then you can disable over-cooling with the commands discussed.

Disabling over-cooling will not stop the system from normal fan response. GPUs create a lot of heat, the fan speeds throughout the system should increase to remove that heat. So, I would expect an increase in fan speed whether LFM response is adjusted or not.

If there is an issue with the thermal profile then the troubleshooting steps would be:

• Enable Collect System Inventory on Reboot
• Remove power connectors for about 60 seconds to drain volatile memory
• Use LifeCycle controller to wipe iDRAC or other methods to reset the iDRAC to defaults

Those steps will allow the hardware to be detected again, clear any configuration that is resident in memory, and create a new configuration file. If there are issues with old settings not be overwritten or updating then those steps should help fix that problem.

Thanks

Here is the RACADM command you need. First to see the current settings and then to change it

See Current settings

racadm -r ipaddress of the draccard -u dracusername -p password get system.thermalsettings.thirdpartyPCIFanResponse

Change

racadm -r ipaddress of the draccard -u dracusername -p password set system.thermalsettings.thirdpartyPCIFanResponse 0

Will this work with iDRAC9 Express, or do you need the full Enterprise license?

Also, will changing the thirdpartyPCIFanResponse value to enable use of third-party PCIe cards have any effect on the ProSupport warranty/service?

Is there any way to make an R7515 go below 42% PWM? This seems quite excessive for a base config. The server is blowing ice cold air out the back at 3x to 4x the audible volume of multiple 2 socket 12th gen servers combined.

I'd reckon 30% of idle power consumption is just fans then. Pretty silly...

The tech manual states "quiet enough for office environment in typical and
minimum configurations. The system is sufficiently quiet where the sound blends into the environment."

Dell's office must be much louder than mine. Is that quote just a bulk copy-paste oversight from a different server manual that properly manages fan speed?

Hello,

no you cannot modify the fans speeds, it is managed by the idrac automatically.

Thanks

Marco