ML110 Gen11 - Fan noise

[Roberto80]

I recently bought my first Gen11 server - an ML110.

I found that fans make more noise if compared to older servers.

When server was first started fans 3 and 4 ran at 60-65% for 3-5 minutes every 15-20 minutes.

Then, after bios/firmware/drivers upgrades, they went down to 40-42%, that is still quite high and makes it difficult to work in the same room.

At the moment the server is doing almost nothing: 1 shared folder sporadically accessed by 1-2 users.

I made an in-depth monitoring via restful apis, polling fan speed and temperatures every 30 seconds. The result is that fan speed is not related to temperature changes.

I opened a case with support and they told me:

 - that this is normal

 - that I cannot expect the fans to run at constant speed

 - that they consider an issue only if the fans run at constant high speed

 - that a fan speed of 40-42% every 15-20 minutes (and its related noise) is to be considered acceptable.

They suggested me to set workload profile to "Max Performance", but that worsened the situation.

I run many different servers (an ML350 Gen8 is in the same room) and I barely hear them.

Did anyone experience the same fans issue with ML110 Gen11?

Thank you!

[SydUmar_1]

Hello Roberto80,
Considering that you've already initiated a support case, the logs would have been reviewed, and recommendations would have been communicated. Please verify that the thermal configuration is optimized for cooling, ensure there are no third-party hardware installations, and set the ambient temperature according to operational guidelines.

[FrancescoM]

Same issue here, 

two servers ML110 Gen11 fully updated with latest VmWare esxi and no VMs running 

they are so noisy I cannot bring them to the customer in this condition

regards

Francesco

[Roberto80 · Accepted solution]

My server has 2 SDDs (bays 1 & 2) and 2 HDDs (originally in bays 3 & 4).

HPE actually escalated my case and after a couple of days they suggested me to try to move HDDs to different bays. They wrote me that in a similar situation with an ml110 gen11 that helped.

I tried to operate the server for a couple of days without HDDs and then I re-inserted them in bays 7&8. In both cases the two problematic fans (3&4) ran at an almost fixed speed of respectively 17% and 19% that is definitely acceptable.

Maybe you can try to move your disks, too.

[FrancescoM]

Hi Roberto,

I have no HDD, only SSDs. 

After a day of research I think it is an "intentionally bad design" issue,

the fans even look far worse that what used to be available in Gen6,

and I would suggest to fully abandon the product line entirely.

Buy a ML110 Gen10 instead.

I have opened yet another support ticket.  

[jkubis]

We are running into the same issue. Things with HP has been terrible as well as support. I've had this server in our office for 6 months with parts availability being bad, getting a defective fan, etc. Finally was able to put this all together last week and the fans are going out of control at the customer's site. I had to pull it to bring it back for troubleshooting. Engineering told us a network card that is in the configurator will cause higher fan speeds. Well we pulled it and still having issues. Asking us to pull drives out and put a sata drive in. Not sure what that is going to do when it's a design issue.

[NunoR]

Hello 

Same problem here. The noise is unbearable. Don't know if my client will acept this! HP needs to sove it!

[Mr_Techie]

You may follow these advisories, I hope it helps: 

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=sd00002310en_us&page=GUID-6E56342A-49F9-47DE-A46A-381D34EE1EE2.html

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=sd00002310en_us&page=GUID-89FB1A76-F982-4429-9A3E-5A430D548C8C.html

Let me know how it goes. 

[jkubis]

There is a big issue with these servers and HP and their engineering is clueness. I have a server that I have had in the shop here for 6 months and they have tried numerous bios fixes and profiles. It's time to get a class action lawsuit rolling.

[jkubis]

They sent us SSD drives as well. We are beta testers apparently for HP who clearly didn't test properly. This product is straight trash.