Change fan speed settings on backplane?

[Dice]

Hello
This post is about fan speed settings and my options.
A long story short, I planned ahead on my Skylake system to get my next set of drives (7x) which would require the purchase of cables and a new controller card, and reworking fans/cooling in my DIY case. This quickly escalated to getting a 24bay xcase-uk box, somewhat like a Norco for EU users.
Reading the hardware recomendations again, I realized there would be little use in putting out some 500USD on case, HBA's, cabling, a sub par 24bay case that would be <filled> instantly.
I turned to SuperMicro 36bay chassis.

I got my hands on a SuperMicro 847E16-R1400LPB. The price was indeed appealing in spite of horrific shipment costs and taxes. (Literary doubling the list price on ebay before the machine got in my hands!!)
It features 36 bays, SAS2 expander backplane and 9211-8i, X8DTN+ 2xL5630 CPU's.
The backplanes are: BPN-SAS2-846EL1 and BPN-SAS2-826EL1.

Unfortunately the motherboard is not an -F with IPMI. However, there is an add-on card providing IPMI 2.0 functionality: AOC-IPMI20-E. I've manged to access it through IPMI View.
In the screen "IPM Device" there are a "Fan Speed mode" setting on my X11 system. This setting is missing on the new X8 system. I can change fan speed somewhat in BIOS, choosing from a few options where the lowest speed setting is "ES - energy saver" - which limits the screaming ~6500rpm fans to a measly but super noisy 2500rpm.

Now, that would be something if it affected all fans. It doesn't. Only one out of 7. The one which is connected to the motherboard. The rest are connected directly to the front and rear backplanes directly.
Hence - I'd like some input in how to proceed with limiting fan speeds somewhat from "beyond reason blast" (my plants 5ft behind the machine are literally waving in the wind....)

I'm well aware of risks of lowering fan speeds/swapping fans with regards to both design of the chassis, and drive temperatures. I <will be> paying really close attention to temperatures while testing.

Some ideas:
1) Can the backplanes be accessed in any way, likely to provide fan speed adjustments?
2) Would it be better to get extension cables to run all fans off the motherboard?
3) Are there any hopes to get fan speed settings using the AOC-IPMI20-E ?
4) ...?

Cheers /

 

[Ericloewe]

Connected to the backplanes? Hmm...

Do the backplanes have any connection to the motherboard besides the SFF-8087 cables? There might be some side-side-band stuff proprietary to Supermicro. If not, that basically leaves you with having to connect the fans to the motherboard - and you have to make sure the motherboard can handle the required power.

 

[Dice]

Do the backplanes have any connection to the motherboard besides the SFF-8087 cables?

There are!
"FP CTRL" is the label (searchable) used in the manual. However it is not explained judging from a quick search(?!).
It is connected with a "FC-16p" ribbon cable.
SGPIO connectors on the motherboard are "elsewhere" and not connected.

edit: It is not connected to the backplane. It is actually connected to a small little pcb screwed to the front side of the chassis. "TB826" is the only lable I can read from it. It looks like an inlet air temp sensor?!


/

 

[Ericloewe]

FP CTRL

Sounds like front panel switches and LEDs.

 

[depasseg]

The backplane fans headers run at full speed and aren't controlled by bios. I moved mine from the backplane to the motherboard (well, in my case it was a JBOD power controller, but same difference), and noise dropped dramatically. I posted about it around here, and someone else did the same thing with the same positive results.

 

[Dice]

@depasseg
Thnx!

That makes a lot of sense.

I've just moved 4 of the 7 fans to the motherboard, and set the lowest fan speed setting in BIOS.
Significant improvement.
Next up is elaborating with blocking the side-ventilation and the rear bays, using probably gorilla tape. The idea is to address the issue of substantial negative air pressure to the drives, and not to other locations not used. Since I've very low powered CPU's, that part of the cooling is not likely to require 'max airflow'. - I hope.

 

[depasseg]

@depasseg

yes?

 

[Dice]

yes?

On the ball right there :D:D
LOL
Damn forum posted when I tried to add your tag without using the mouse...
..post is edited.

Cheers /

 

[cyberjock]

You might be able to use getencstat and setencstat to check and set the fan speeds. Those 2 programs are for accessing things like the enclosure (expander) data. I don't know if fan speeds can be queried or changed, but I figured I'll let you check those programs and see what works.