Opinions on safe disk temperatures

[-fun-]

Hi all,

I have now 2 WD Red 8TB disk in my server. The disk temperatures are around 40 degrees which I find high compared to the previously used disks.

Does this match with your experiences with WD Red 8TB disks compared to smaller WD Reds?

I know the temperatures are far below 60 degrees as specified by WD but still.

Details:

One disk is running constantly at 42 degrees, the other at 38 while idle. The temperatures go up as high as 46 degrees during disk activity. The cooler disk is the one which has 2 unoccupied slots to one side which probably explains the difference between these two.

I had 2 WD Red 3TB disks for a long time and 2 WD Red 6TB disk now for several weeks in the very same server. All of those were running at under 30 degrees even when all four slots in my server were occupied and during disk activity.

The 8TB disk are not 7200 rpm, are they? This would also explain higher temperatures.

My server is running in my basement, no heating there except by the server and some switches, routers and such stuff. Temperatures are not above typical room temperatures here but they slightly change with the seasons. Throughout the year the disk temperatures increased during summer and decreased again in winter.

 

[sretalla]

60 is the maximum operating temperature, but the experience here is to aim for 35-40.

I use a PID fan script to ensure that my fans spin up according to the HDD temperatures and am able to keep a reasonably quiet box most of the time (scrubs are a noisy time).

WD RED Pro are 7200 RPM and they do run hotter than the regular REDs (5400 RPM). They are also rated to run at higher temperatures, but that doesn't help neighbor disks if they aren't also RED Pro.

 

[Jailer]

Does this match with your experiences with WD Red 8TB disks compared to smaller WD Reds?

No. Mine (1 red and 5 white label 8TB) run only slightly hotter than the green's they replaced and never go above 40C. I'd do something to increase cooling if I were you, heat is the enemy of spinning rust.

 

[-fun-]

I checked the fan speed and it is running at 13%. Is anyone here aware of how I can increase this in an easy way?

The internet seems to agree that is is most desirable to reduce fan speed, not increase. Seems people are running their servers in their living room. Well ...

 

[anmnz]

I think you'd need to provide details of your hardware for anyone to be able to answer that. See the Forum Rules for a guide to what information you should give.

 

[-fun-]

Of course, this may have not been obvious to everyone because it is in my footer.

I have an HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8.

 

[sretalla]

I checked the fan speed and it is running at 13%.

Where did you get that information?

If you got it from IPMI, then maybe there's a chance you can use IPMI to set it.

 

[-fun-]

The HP Server has an administration backend. It shows all sensor data, esp. temperatures, systems health, including fan speed. But there are no options to actually influence fan speeds. It doesn't know / show disk temperatures. I find this mildly disturbing because SMART capable disks do have sensoers, so why not use them? Does this possibly work for HP branded disks only? Is there a way to make the server aware of disk temperatures? This would be easiest because all of the logic there regulating the fan speed could do its work. Setting fan speed to constantly high is surely not the best option.

 

[sretalla]

There are a few folks in the forum who have spent a lot of effort to put together solutions for exactly that... most of the work is based on the IPMI interface on Supermicro boards.

Since my boards are not Supermicro and the IPMI on my main system is a poor design and can't modify fan speed, I sought another alternative... turned out to be to use a Corsair Commander Pro to control the fans and I then coopted the PID fan script from @Kevin Horton, @Stux and @Glorious1 to use the HD and CPU temps to determine the speeds of the various fans in the case.

OpenCorsairLink in a jail to control fans?

I read about the Corsair Commander Pro[module] in another [thread] , and since no one has yet started a new thread on this matter as suggested by Kevin Horton... This is a very interesting project! Congrats for getting it working. It really merits its own thread, as I expect there will be a...

www.ixsystems.com

I am not aware of any motherboard-based solution that controls fan speeds based on HDD temperature, but the work of those guys mentioned above is more than satisfactory to get the job done if you have the right hardware for fan control.

 

[winnielinnie]

I figured I'd chime in with a personal tip that works well for me: a dedicated air purifier for a computer / server room.

Prior to having a purifier filter the air 24/7, I noticed outside the case that the grilles and mesh filters of my chassis would consistently collect a noticeable grey layer of dust. Inside the box dust always collects in all the usual places: fan blades, CPU, inlets where fresh air enters. If I remove the grilles and filters, clean them with water, let them dry, then reinstall them, my internal temperatures would lower by about 1 to 2 degrees C. (Not much, but still something.)

After I purchased a whole-room air purifier that I let run 24/7, I never get any more dust on the outside nor inside of my chassis, and my temps consistently remain at their lowest. Not having to worry about dust as often (or really at all) is a major plus in of itself.

 

[-fun-]

Thank you all for the valuable information! An air purifier is an interesting advice. Tons of dust on fan blades is something I have known for years, however not in my server closet now. Which is fine but removes the air purifier as a very simple part of a solution. I will check into hardware though for fan control.

 

[-fun-]

Guess what. HP has a BIOS setup option 'Thermal Configuration'. I had to reboot to access this. Why this isn't available in the IPMI backend is beyond me. (And why I didn't check this in the first place).

Not really FreeNAS related but in case anyone with an HP server ever researches this topic here ...

'Thermal Configuration' offers three options (quoted from the HP guide):

• Optimal Cooling (default)—Provides the most efficient solution by configuring fan speeds to the minimum required to provide adequate cooling.
• Increased Cooling—Operates fans at higher speeds to provide additional cooling. Increased cooling is often chosen to accommodate 3rd party options not listed in the QuickSpecs and devices that do not report temperature. HP recommends selecting Increased Cooling when a system is experiencing thermal issues that cannot be resolved in another manner. Larger scale application of Increased Cooling over multiple systems, especially when in a closed cooling loop rack, POD, or data center near the limits of its cooling capacity, should study the impact of such a change prior to implementing it.
• Maximum Cooling—Provides the maximum cooling available for the platform. (Available only on Gen8 servers with Intel processors).

"Optimal Cooling" was configured which wasn't optimal in my case. HP refers to '3rd party options' which may very well mean non-HP branded disks although the disks do report temperatures. Maybe the disks are not accessible to the BMC? Anyway ...

I'll report back if 'Increased Cooling' helps solve the problem. If not I can still switch to "Maximum Cooling'.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Reads a bit like magic and more magic ...
;)

 

[pschatz100]

If you check your motherboard manual, you will likely find an explanation of the cooling modes. My old Supermicro system has the same sort of options in its bios. On my system, the lowest setting runs the fans at 30%, middle setting runs fans at 50% (more or less) and the Max setting runs the fans at full speed. Knowing this, I replaced my quiet case fans with somewhat faster 2000 rpm fans, but they are running at 50% so they are actually very quiet.

Also of note:
- There are two kinds of fans: High Airflow optimized and Static Pressure optimized. I replaced the fan blowing air into my hard drive cage with one optimized for static pressure, and it helped lower disk temps a few degrees. See this intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdx9U-KW038

 

[-fun-]

I checked twice and it seems "Increased Cooling" results in the machine reporting the fan to be running at 28% in contrast to 13% with "Optimal Cooling". I can't check the effect on disk temperatures right now because the machine is running a live linux and zeroing some disks. (I don't have a separate machine for this.) Stay posted.

Thanks for the story about magic btw! I liked it. Also thanks for the advice about fans. I would still prefer the Increased Cooling to just do what it should however.

 

[-fun-]

So I finished wiping disks and setup my server for regular operation again. I now have 2 WD Red 8TB disks and 2 WD Red 3TB disks. The bigger disks reported 29 degrees immediately after start while the 3TB disks reported 24 degrees. All disks had been stored in the same place (= same temperature). The temperatures started rising immediately after start.

So my result: The WD Red 8TB get definitely hotter than the smaller disks by about 5 degrees independent from usage.

 

[-fun-]

So after several hours the disks have reached a plateau of 38 and 29 degrees for the 8TB and the 3TB disks respectively. That's full 9 degrees difference. "Increased Cooling" seems to have lowered by 2 degrees compared to my initial assessment. That's not perfect but I'll live with that.

 

[Constantin]

I had the opposite experience - my HGST 3TB drives ran hotter than my current 10TB drives - the current range is about 29-31*C using nothing but ambient air. Three 120mm fans are pushing air over 8 drives.

 

[Johnnie Black]

my HGST 3TB drives ran hotter than my current 10TB drives

Helium drives usually run quite cool due to the lower helium drag, OP is likely using the new 8TB Reds which use air inside, unlike the older helium modesl with ran noticebly cooler.

 

[Constantin]

... having a dedicated 5.25” fan controller with a thermal pad just for the hard drives likely helps also. I got that before I switched to using a supermicro motherboard. These days, the SuperMicro scripts published by the community would likely be a better solution for me.

But the likely biggest impact was getting a better case that allowed adequate air flow over each HDD. Some of the cases I toyed with (see my Norco 431 review) were excellent HDD toasters.