PowerEdge 16th Generation Liquid Cool Setting

Question

Hi,

I have noticed that PowerEdge servers have a hidden setting for liquid cooling. After accidentally enabling it on a first boot of a system. I would like to know if it's possible to disable? I've seen some documentation and I can see it's readable from RACADM under System.ThermalConfig.LiquidCoolSetting however it is read only? Is this by design as I have a server overheating due to the fans not ramping up enough. I can cool the system only by using a fan offset.

Thank you.

DELL-Charles R · Accepted Answer

Hello,

Did you try the steps in the KB article Martin posted?

It is the same steps in the internal documentation I found.

The ThermalConfig setting can be corrected through an undocumented OEM IPMI command.

#Set to Air Cooled

ipmitool raw 0x30 0xD0 0x0 0x38 0x37 0x0 0x0 0x0 0x37 0x0 0x73 0x79 0x73 0x74 0x65 0x6d 0x2e 0x65 0x6d 0x62 0x65 0x64 0x64 0x65 0x64 0x2e 0x31 0x23 0x74 0x68 0x65 0x72 0x6d 0x61 0x6c 0x63 0x6f 0x6e 0x66 0x69 0x67 0x2e 0x31 0x23 0x6c 0x69 0x71 0x75 0x69 0x64 0x63 0x6f 0x6f 0x6c 0x73 0x65 0x74 0x74 0x69 0x6e 0x67 0x3d 0x30

The response data should be:

38 37 00 00 00

Note: IPMITOOL requires root/admin privileges when run from within the host operating system.

Reboot the iDRAC (ipmitool mc reset cold) and reboot the host operating system (reboot) to allow the correct thermal table to reload.

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000319232/poweredge-17g-servers-prompting-for-liquid-cool-settings-input-during-post-after-idrac10-update

DELL-Charles R · Answer

Hello,   I would recommend to contact Dell Support directly and an engineer can do a remote session with you. There are some non-public steps they can do to Set to Air Cooled.

cProxi · Answer

@DELL-Charles R​ is this possible to do without an engineer and without support? I would just like a simple quick way to do it. Even a point in the correct direction if possible.

Dell-Martin S · Answer

Hi, Sure you could try it with the manual if you be careful and skilled enough you could do this by yourself if you're not sure I would recommend to involve an engineer.

cProxi · Answer

@Dell-Martin S​ hi, could you possibly point out where this would be in the manual? I'm confident on working with these systems but cannot find where I would be able to find the procedure. All I could figure is there's a way to reset the board to detect a new chassis causing it to ask for water cooling to be enabled again? I wouldn't know how to trigger that new chassis detection however. All I can find is the read-only config value in the system attributes.

Dell-Martin S · Answer

Here are some examples for 16th gen

https://www.dell.com/support/contents/en-sr/videos/videoplayer/how-to-replace-liquid-cooling-module-for-poweredge-r760/6320399076112

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-gy/oth-r760/per760_ism_pub/installing-the-direct-liquid-cooling-module?guid=guid-5b7531c5-6709-44ab-8198-00a46d19e95f&lang=en-us

https://www.dell.com/support/contents/en-gy/videos/videoplayer/how-to-replace-liquid-cooling-module-for-poweredge-r660/6320397795112

cProxi · Answer

@Dell-Martin S​ I've already done the physical side of things. I have replaced the liquid cooling modules with high performance air cooled heatsinks. My issue is the software side, this value is still set to enabled with no way to disable it. I believe this is causing my overheating issues as the fans are not ramping up enough.

Dell-Martin S · Answer

Hi

For example Dell PowerEdge R760 liquid cooling relies on a Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) module that is automatically managed by the server and its integrated software; there are no manual user settings for the cooling loop itself, but rather performance is dependent on the system's configuration, such as processor TDP and installed heat sinks. The system uses sensors to detect pressure drops and alerts the user to potential leaks.

cProxi · Answer

@Dell-Martin S​ interesting, I have 3 systems. 2 have this liquid cool setting disabled and do not overheat, the one with this enabled is overheating. I have swapped CPUs and the only thing I can narrow it down to is this setting. Which was set when this was displayed by the system which I stupidly pressed Y to on one system. What I know is this changed the setting under System.ThermalConfig.LiquidCoolSetting from Unknown to Enabled.

Dell-Martin S · Answer

And you have liquid cooling installed?

cProxi · Answer

@Dell-Martin S​ no, I have normal heatsinks installed I accidentally enabled the liquid cooling setting by pressing Y to that prompt on one of my systems. The value it set is read-only and I need it changed to disable liquid cooling. This prompt appeared on the first boot and I cannot get it to appear again. It's changed the fan behavior as the fans are running about 40% below the others according to iDRAC.

Origin3k · Answer

If you have enabled it by 'mistake' than maybe a complete system reset to factory helps.  I have made a similar mistake some time ago by anable a system profile for HCI which reconfigure a lot of settings which where not reset when changing the system profile back to Virtualization. Only a system reset to factory settings help me in my case. Regards, Joerg

Dell-Martin S · Answer

Ah now I understand the issue,

This could help you

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000319232/poweredge-17g-servers-prompting-for-liquid-cool-settings-input-during-post-after-idrac10-update

cProxi · Answer

@Origin3k unfortunately not resetting after refactoring the server/factory restoring it. This setting stays the same throughout.

@Dell-Martin S doing this returns:

racadm>>get System.ThermalConfig.LiquidCoolSetting

[Key=System.Embedded.1#ThermalConfig.1]

LiquidCoolSetting=Enabled

I am not able to set this disabled as it is read only. From what I can see it's only able to be changed when the setting is set to 'Unknown'. Any help would be appreciated, I'm guessing this might be the first time this issue has been raised. But would be nice if possible to be raised with someone higher about this, as I feel this setting should be able to be changed

PowerEdge Hardware General

PowerEdge 16th Generation Liquid Cool Setting

Was this post helpful?