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New R450 Server Fan Noise
I have an R450 server that is a week old, and its fans are very loud. I am comparing it to servers I have used over the past 10+ years, as well as an R440 server that is less than 1 year old (2" above it in the same rack).
The new server has the fans operating at about 46% fan speed, with nothing but ESXi 6.7 host installed (no VMs). By comparison, my R440 with ESXi 6.7 and 10 VMs runs at 10% fan speed.
I installed a Rocky Linux VM on the R450 (via ESXi), and when it did its normal update, the fan speed hit 70% (with just the 1 VM). By comparison, the R440 with the same OS VM only hit about 11% while doing the Linux update.
So, my new server has about 1/10th of the workload but runs its fans 4 to 7 times faster (and louder).
I update the BIOS and iDRAC firmware per Dell, with no change, and I let it sit for several days to 'settle down'. The issue remains.
The servers are configured nearly identical, 6x1.2TB drives in RAID6, 128GB RAM using 16GB banks, with the R440 having 2 x Xeon Silver 4214R while the R450 has 2 x Intel Xeon Silver 4314 CPUs.
I've been discussing this with Dell support for days and performed all their requests. But they have yet to respond to my request for repair, replacement, or refund from 8 hours ago.
At a loss on what to do with this new server.
Any ideas on what to try next, or who to contact?
Benjamminallday
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June 6th, 2024 18:48
The fix is to downgrade the iDRAC firmware to 6.00.02.00.
Link: iDRAC version 6.00.02.00
You can downgrade while the server is on through the iDRAC web UI. Extract the .exe and upload the firmimgFIT.d9 file, otherwise you might get a signature not verified if you try to upload the .exe directly.
An update to iDRAC was released in versions after 6.00.02.00 to rev up fans for a heating issue on the BOSS cards so keep that in mind if using those in heavier production workloads.
DELL-Joey C
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July 12th, 2022 21:00
Hello @MGatWG,
If you have already contacted support and working with them, I would suggest to keep in contact with them, since the server is fairly very new. As you mentioned, you have already performed most of the support's request on troubleshooting, I wouldn't want to interfere with their troubleshooting steps.
MGatWG
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July 13th, 2022 08:00
Thank you for your response, makes sense.
I'll continue to work with their support for the third day. Not to sound nasty, but I don't see how this falls within the 4-hour contract I purchased. I guess I'll get that clarified as well.
terrygraham
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January 22nd, 2024 15:42
I have the same problem with a new R450 - it is OK for a rack room but too noisy for an office. Dell support did not know how to fix it. The Low setting is more noisy