How do I stop Dell R730xd fans from going full speed when Broadcom/QLogic NetXtreme 57711 PCI card added?

Solution 1:

After tearing my hair out on newly arrived lovely R730xd with 16 3.5" disk slots spinning fans at 15k RPM when Intel X520-DA2 10G card is in any PCI slot, I've found following solution for CentOS 6.7 to quiesce fans in jet mode, although it is brute force, not taking into account 10G card's temperature probe - may result it card burnout from overheating, but I believe it is unlikely. Probably there's a way to monitor X520's thermal metrics.

** Description: The default automatic cooling response on PowerEdge 13G server for third-party PCIe cards provisions airflow based on common industry card requirements. Our thermal algorithm targets delivery of maximum 55C inlet air to the PCIe card region based on that industry standard.

For some cards may not need additional cooling above the baseline (such as ones that have their own fan), Dell has enabled an OEM IPMI based command to disable this default fan response to the new PCIe card.

To remediate:

1. Install IPMI tools:

yum install OpenIPMI OpenIPMI-tools
chkconfig ipmi on  # << optional for the task
service ipmi start  # << optional for the task

2. Query Dell's Third-Party PCIe card based default system fan response:

ipmitool raw 0x30 0xce 0x01 0x16 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00

# response like below means Disabled
16 05 00 00 00 05 00 01 00 00

# response like below means Enabled
16 05 00 00 00 05 00 00 00 00

3. Jets off or Set Third-Party PCIe Card Default Cooling Response Logic To Disabled:

ipmitool raw 0x30 0xce 0x00 0x16 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x05 0x00 0x01 0x00 0x00 

4. Jets on or Set Third-Party PCIe Card Default Cooling Response Logic To Enabled:

ipmitool raw 0x30 0xce 0x00 0x16 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 

References: Windows utility (link) Spiceworks post for Windows and 3rd party GPU card causing Gen13 Dell to spin fans (link)

Other findings: Dell's X520-2 firmware pack (here) doesn't recognize Amazon-sourced new in-box $188 vs Dell branded $586

Solution 2:

So after the chat in the comments I have some probably bad news.

Dell hardware that ships with a server as a configured item - which IIRC those broadcoms where - is almost never comparable between generations. Dell tends to put custom firmware that hooks into all their management systems on these things.

So the short of it is the part is probably not comparable, won't be supported, and will cause weird issues like what you are seeing.

Note: this doesn't apply to parts sold through their accessories catalog, on parts shipped as part of a dell server build.