PLEASE READ THIS DOCUMENT ENTIRELY - FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN DAMAGE TO YOUR SYSTEM
I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES THAT MAY OCCUR FROM USING THIS SCRIPT. NO WARRANTY WHATSOEVER!
This tool is aimed at VMware ESXi and Linux users who wish to better control their fans based on temperatures.
It monitors configured CPU / Motherboard / Memory temps and will set fan speeds accordingly with a little smoothing to prevent rapidly changing fan speeds aka yo-yo'ing (which annoys those nearby and can reduce fan bearing lifespan).
I wrote this tool for use with VMware ESXi on a Supermicro X8SIL-F but it should work on other x86/x64 *nix systems and hopefully all Supermicro X8 / X9 / X10 / X11 boards with IPMI. I have personally tested it on the following;
- Supermicro X9DRi-LN4+
- Supermicro X8SIL-F (IPMI equipped variant)
- VMWare ESXi 6.7
- VMware ESXi 5.5
- Ubuntu 20.04
- Ubuntu 18.04
- Ubuntu 16.04
For this script to work, you MUST have an IPMI module AND set your fan speeds to FULL SPEED in the BIOS otherwise this tool fights for control with the fans and they will spin up and down repeatedly (yo-yo'ing).
Setting it to full speed not only helps reduce yo-yo'ing of fan speeds but also provides a safety-net if a fan drops below a certain RPM or worse, dies completely. In this eventuality the fans will default to full speed.
On VMware these scripts should work straight out of the box, they do however require a persistent datastore to live on.
Place the files in something along the lines of /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/tools/FanControl/ and then add the following
to the /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh (or /etc/rc.local if that file doesn't exist) above the exit 0 statement;
/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/tools/FanControl/daemon.sh
On Ubuntu systems you may need to install 32-bit execution support, sudo su to root and run the following;
dpkg --add-architecture i386
apt-get update
apt-get install libc6:i386 libncurses5:i386 libstdc++6:i386
apt-get install multiarch-support
Next, find a suitable place for the scripts to live such as /opt/FanControl/ (you may need to create that dir).
Finally, run crontab -e and add the following line;
@reboot /opt/FanControl/daemon.sh
Nearly all Supermicro X8 / X9 / X10 / X11 series motherboards have numerous fan ports, these are split into two zones;
- Zone A = Numerical fan ports labelled FAN1, FAN2 etc - there are usually at least four of these
- Zone B = Alphabetical fan ports labelled FANA / FANB - there are usually only two of these
The Supermicro IPMI system does NOT permit individual fan control, you can only control them by zone.
Supermicro boards are typically installed in rackmount cases where a cluster of fans cool the CPU, RAM and motherboard as one area, so Supermicro assume Zone A is used for cooling the main system and Zone B for cooling auxiliary areas such as PCIe cards, drive bays etc.
- Zone A = Anything that cools the CPU, memory and motherboard
- Zone B = Anything that cools PCIe cards and / or drive bays
If, like myself, you're using a Supermicro board in a desktop case, chances are you've already using dedicated CPU coolers with their own fans. In this formation, I highly recommend you do the opposite and CONNECT THE CPU FANS to Zone B ports and the remaining case fans to Zone A.
- Zone A = Anything other than CPU fans
- Zone B = Fans that directly cool the CPU
It makes temperature management more efficient. There are usually only 1-2 CPU fans and if we can then cool the CPUs independently of the rest of the case, we can control heat better by keeping those fans at a faster speed but reduce case fan speeds and noise overall.
The Sensor Name Search option allows you to select a sensor if it contains this value (case-insensitive). "CPU" (without the quotes) would naturally select any temperature sensor with the word CPU, cpu, Cpu etc.
The Sensor Test Match option allows you to choose whether the selected sensor SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be accepted for that zone;
- By setting this to True, sensors will be selected if they match the search term
- By setting this to False, sensors that DO NOT match the search term will be selected instead
This is useful if you want to match CPU sensors in one zone and non-CPU temperature sensors in the other zone, just set the search
to the same in both zones and then set one zone to match = True and the other zone to match = False.
These are minimum and maximum fan speeds per zone, expressed as a PWM percentage, for example 60 is 60% PWM duty cycle and
should theoretically be 60% of the fan's maximum speed (this differs between different brands / models of fan).
Please note, if any fan speed falls below 650 RPM, the IPMI will assume it's stalled, log a fan fail alert and set ALL fans to 100% speed. When the script next sets the fan speeds, the fans will slow and may be considered as stalled again.
If this happens, your fans will repeatedly go fast -> slow -> fast -> slow, over and over again. This is known as yo-yo'ing.
To counteract this, raise your minimum fan PWM until your fan reads 675 RPM or greater at its lowest setting.
If you still get yo-yo'ing, check to make sure you don't have a failed fan or if your fan can even spin that fast (some 200+ mm fans can't)
All temperatures are degrees Celsius, values are for which fans will be at their minimum and maximum speeds respectively.
Recommended min -> max temperature ranges:
- 55 -> 65 for CPU temps
- 65 -> 75 for RAM and Chipset / BCH temps
- 45 -> 55 for Board / Case ambient temps
- 35 -> 45 for Hard Disk drive temps
These are intentionally conservative and components may tolerate higher, however one component may heat up another and cause heat soak.
With the following values...
| Field | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 60 | 70 |
| Fan PWM | 50 | 100 |
We can expect the following behaviour (apologies for the crudely drawn ASCII graph);
PWM%
100 | ,------
90 | /
80 | /
70 | /
60 | /
50 |------`
`------------------
50 60 70 80 'C
The values included in config.ini by default are sane values to start with. Good luck!
~ JG