Dell r730xd slow down fan speed

 

I have a dell R730xd server with an iDrac8 with a PERC H730P mini Raid Controller with 2GB of cache.  I am using it for a home lab and every time I reboot the machine the fans go all out and its very loud.  After the system starts up it quiets down and the fans go at a more reasonable speed.

 

I have 2 Dell r730xd servers in a rack in my home and I am not really pushing them.  I don’t think I need this initial burst of speed.

 

My Current status

After logging into the iDrac8 web page open up Overview à hardware à Fans

 

 

During a boot up it gets fast and loud.

 

I took a quick screen shot and you can see it going from 69% to 92%.

After it starts up, and the computer is not doing much….

 

It goes down to 10% and stays there.

Taking a quick look at my temperatures in Overview à Server à Power Thermal

 

Looks like our temps are low on the CPU.

Turn on IPMI

Overview à iDrac Settings à Network
Then click on IPMI settings

 

 

Enable IPMI Over Lan and click Apply.

 

Install the ipmitool locally on my computer soI can do some more investigations faster

> sudo apt install ipmitool

Put you idrac password in a local file

> vi  ~/.ipmi_pass

Now run this command to get data
Replace IP with your iDrac IP

> ipmitool -I lanplus -H 192.168.0.70 -U root -f ~/.ipmi_pass sdr type fan

 

Then after a reboot

 

We can see the higher RPMs as it reboots.

Settings to get it lower on reboot.

Open Overview à Hardware à Fans then click on Setup

 

 

Set the Thermal Profile to Minimum Power,  Choose the Default for exhaust.
Fan speed = Off
Set the minimum to 0 and click Apply.

0 Does not mean no fan it means as low as it can go which is 3,000 RPMS.

OK after those settings and a total reboot I still had the fans kick up to a high speed on boot up.  I recorded up to 17,000 RPMs before it went back down to 3,000 after it fully booted up.

I went and timed it and it takes ~ 2 min for it to go from the loud startup to quiet.

 

Let me try this command out. (change the IP to your iDrac IP)

> ipmitool -I lanplus -H 192.168.0.70 -U root -f ~/.ipmi_pass raw 0x30 0xce 0x01 0x16 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00

 

See PowerEdge: How to disable the third-party PCIe Card default cooling response on PowerEdge 13G Servers 1

OK I restarted after this setting and I am still getting the same results.

 

That is the best I can do ☹

Looks like that is the best I can do.   I can get the fan speed slower after a reboot, but no for the first 2 min of a reboot.  Looks like there is no real way around that.

Its understandable trying to be “safe” during a reboot.

 

References

 

1.      PowerEdge: How to disable the third-party PCIe Card default cooling response on PowerEdge 13G Servers

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000135682/how-to-disable-the-third-party-pcie-card-default-cooling-response-on-poweredge-13g-servers

last visited 10/2026