I have been getting disk temp warnings during parity checks or when the mover has a lot of stuff to move. The drives hit 41 degrees during these activities. I was wondering if it is possible to change the warning setting since this seems to be a normal event in my setup. If I could change it to 42 degrees I would only get warnings if something out of the ordinary is happening.

 

Thanks

 

John

I have been getting disk temp warnings during parity checks or when the mover has a lot of stuff to move. The drives hit 41 degrees during these activities. I was wondering if it is possible to change the warning setting since this seems to be a normal event in my setup. If I could change it to 42 degrees I would only get warnings if something out of the ordinary is happening.

 

Thanks

 

John

unRAID has no warnings...

 

Which add-on did you install that provides warnings?  Are these warnings on the screen? (which screen?)

or via mail?  What exactly does the mail say? (so we can verify the source)

 

If you installed the warning through unMENU's package manager, use the package-manager system in it to change the warning threshold to one you desire.  If on the unMENU screens, you can add an unmenu_local.conf file to specify alternate color coding thresholds for the screen.

 

A more complete solution is to fix your cooling.  Odds are it is marginal.

 

Joe L.

Joe L.

 

Thanks for the reply and sorry for the incomplete info. Yes it is the unRAID Status Alert sent hourly by e-mail Package and I did find the place to change it thanks to you.

 

Yes my cooling is marginal.

I believe I need to change cases I think my drives are to densely packed for their own good. Just waiting to free up some cash as I just build a new desktop last month.

 

Edit to add: As a stop gap I am thinking of picking up a 4in3 cage and mounting it in the 5 1/4 bays and relocating a few drives. As you can see from the pic the cache and disk 5 have are left with no fan blowing across them.

If it were me, I'd mount another fan or two in front of the drives. Also, make sure all the airflow is forced over the drives, don't let any escape out of vents that don't contribute to cooling the drives.

If it were me, I'd mount another fan or two in front of the drives. Also, make sure all the airflow is forced over the drives, don't let any escape out of vents that don't contribute to cooling the drives.

 

There is a 120 in the front of the case, would have to check to see if one would fit between the front of the drives and the front of the case.

 

Side vent has been taped off, only the one with the duct that goes right to the cpu is open.

 

And of course the 120 in the back is visible.

If it were me, I'd mount another fan or two in front of the drives. Also, make sure all the airflow is forced over the drives, don't let any escape out of vents that don't contribute to cooling the drives.

 

There is a 120 in the front of the case, would have to check to see if one would fit between the front of the drives and the front of the case.

 

Side vent has been taped off, only the one with the duct that goes right to the cpu is open.

 

And of course the 120 in the back is visible.

It might just be my old eyes, but I see an awful lot of dust buildup on the metal grill behind the fan on the lower part of your server.

Perhaps a bit of server-maintenance is in order?  (as in clean out the dust clogging a third of the grill)

Since your other options include new case and drive cages, maybe some quality time with tinsnips and a nibbler on the current case would help? That front grill concealing the 120 fan can't be good for airflow, and if you boost the airflow through the case, you really could eliminate the CPU side vent altogether. Just tape off the hole and remove the plastic cooling duct. The CPU duct is really there for quiet desktop use, when the case flowthrough is low to none. Also, maybe try blocking the unused 5.25 bays with tape so they can't steal airflow.

If it were me, I'd mount another fan or two in front of the drives. Also, make sure all the airflow is forced over the drives, don't let any escape out of vents that don't contribute to cooling the drives.

 

There is a 120 in the front of the case, would have to check to see if one would fit between the front of the drives and the front of the case.

 

Side vent has been taped off, only the one with the duct that goes right to the cpu is open.

 

And of course the 120 in the back is visible.

It might just be my old eyes, but I see an awful lot of dust buildup on the metal grill behind the fan on the lower part of your server.

Perhaps a bit of server-maintenance is in order?  (as in clean out the dust clogging a third of the grill)

 

Good catch Joe L, I missed that, my eyes focused on the gunk in the cpu cooler which I did blow out....time to get the compressed air can out again...

Since your other options include new case and drive cages, maybe some quality time with tinsnips and a nibbler on the current case would help? That front grill concealing the 120 fan can't be good for airflow, and if you boost the airflow through the case, you really could eliminate the CPU side vent altogether. Just tape off the hole and remove the plastic cooling duct. The CPU duct is really there for quiet desktop use, when the case flowthrough is low to none. Also, maybe try blocking the unused 5.25 bays with tape so they can't steal airflow.

 

Jonathanm

 

I run with that front door/grill open almost all the time, I have been avoiding breaking it off figuring its a good desktop case when I replace the server case. As you can see I am almost out of expansion options in this case.

 

On of the problems (I think) is that the one fan up front can't possibly blow air across all 7 drives. It looks like it hits drives 1 - 4 pretty well, maybe a little of the parity drive too. Disk 5 and the cache are way out of the path of the air flow since they were floppy drive bays. Oddly enough my floppies never seemed to run hot 

 

Well, I ran out of canned air..........So I was forced to fire up the air compressor 

Needless to say that netted me a squeaky clean case.

 

It looks like the cleaned grill has lowered cache drive temp by 1 degree. Not a lot but I will take every degree cooler I can get.

One more observation.

 

There appears to be opening in the front panel metal above the fan. (in front of the cache drive and disk5)

  Is it possible the air cannot pressurize the space in front of the drives because it is exiting right back out the front.

 

Think of the area in front of the disks as a pressure chamber.  If you pressurize it, and there is an even number of equal sized passages of airflow between the drives, the air will flow pretty evenly between all the drives.

 

The key is to pressurize that space in front of the drives and keep the air from exiting in any way except between the drives.  (and eliminate that one path that looks easy)

One of the problems (I think) is that the one fan up front can't possibly blow air across all 7 drives. It looks like it hits drives 1 - 4 pretty well, maybe a little of the parity drive too. Disk 5 and the cache are way out of the path of the air flow since they were floppy drive bays. Oddly enough my floppies never seemed to run hot 

It does not need to blow directly on the disks, it only needs to pressurize the space in front of the disks.

 

You might be able to put a fan made for a higher static pressure in the case...  A fan designed for low noise is probably NOT what is needed.  One for a high static pressure is what is needed.

 

Also, make sure the fan covers all the holes in the front grill.  If the fan does not cover them all, there is no way to build up pressure in that space in front of the disks.  Make sure you close the side door of the chassis to make sure that air cannot flow around the drives.  It looks to me, unless there is some foam weatherstripping, that the lower drive rack is narrower than the upper, and that air will flow between the side of the rack and the server side when you close the side panel.  That passage must be blocked off.

I'd be inclined to add a panel made from a bit of card to cover the vertical gap that lets the air leak past the left side of the drive cage thus forcing it to go only between the drives.  I added quite a lot of card to my server to force the air to flow only where I want.  The result was well worth the time and effort and in my case meant better cooling from a less powerful 9and quieter) fan.

I'd be inclined to add a panel made from a bit of card to cover the vertical gap that lets the air leak past the left side of the drive cage thus forcing it to go only between the drives.  I added quite a lot of card to my server to force the air to flow only where I want.  The result was well worth the time and effort and in my case meant better cooling from a less powerful 9and quieter) fan.

I just edited my post to say exactly the same thing.

I'd be inclined to add a panel made from a bit of card to cover the vertical gap that lets the air leak past the left side of the drive cage thus forcing it to go only between the drives.  I added quite a lot of card to my server to force the air to flow only where I want.  The result was well worth the time and effort and in my case meant better cooling from a less powerful 9and quieter) fan.

I just edited my post to say exactly the same thing.

 

Thanks for the tips Joe L and S80 UK.

 

I will duct tape the slots in front of the top two drives that you pointed out. and will look into what I can use to stop the air from going around the 3 1/2 bays on the bottom of the case. I probably have some cardboard on hand, I don't think I have any rigid foam laying around at the moment.

I run with that front door/grill open almost all the time, I have been avoiding breaking it off figuring its a good desktop case when I replace the server case. As you can see I am almost out of expansion options in this case.

I wasn't talking about the plastic door, I'm a talking about the swiss cheese metal that the fan is bolted to. You know, the dustcatcher that Joe spotted? In more than one of my cases, I've totally removed the drilled metal blocking the fan so the blades are visible from both sides.

I run with that front door/grill open almost all the time, I have been avoiding breaking it off figuring its a good desktop case when I replace the server case. As you can see I am almost out of expansion options in this case.

I wasn't talking about the plastic door, I'm a talking about the swiss cheese metal that the fan is bolted to. You know, the dustcatcher that Joe spotted? In more than one of my cases, I've totally removed the drilled metal blocking the fan so the blades are visible from both sides.

 

Ahhhh, Point taken, will work on that.

OK, who knew last nights pizza box was gonna come in handy 

 

Closed off both sides like this after closing the openings in front of the two top drives.

Now, tape over the CPU side port on the case cover, button it up and run it through a parity check while watching CPU and drive temps. I'll bet $$ that you'll see a huge improvement.

 

What CPU and drive temps were you seeing during a parity check prior to all these cooling mods?

Now, tape over the CPU side port on the case cover, button it up and run it through a parity check while watching CPU and drive temps. I'll bet $$ that you'll see a huge improvement.

 

What CPU and drive temps were you seeing during a parity check prior to all these cooling mods?

 

I do not monitor cpu temps, have never had a problem with them. If they get out of hand the bios would shut it down.

 

Parity and my cache drive are the hot runners at 41 degrees. The other drives don't set off temp warnings so they are all below 40 degrees during parity checks.

 

Not running a parity check at the moment but cache drive is already running 3 degrees cooler, will let it run for a bit and see where it goes.....then will close off cpu vent and compare...will report back in a little while.

In the short time I left it I did not notice a difference covering the cpu vent. I was having a problem with unmenu not working right so I stopped the array and rebooted. Not sure why but it triggered a parity check when it came back up.  CPU vent is still covered and I guess we will see what temps hit during the check.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the tips Joe L and S80 UK.

 

I will duct tape the slots in front of the top two drives that you pointed out. and will look into what I can use to stop the air from going around the 3 1/2 bays on the bottom of the case. I probably have some cardboard on hand, I don't think I have any rigid foam laying around at the moment.

 

I had an issue with high drive temperatures when I first built my server.  The drive temperatures were hitting around 40C with one reaching the low 40C during parity checks.  I solved the problem by putting an EXHAUST fan in the side panel of the case. I picked a fan which was spec'ed with a high flow rate (and the sound levels were also bit high).  Now all of the drives remain within 5C of the ambient temperature.

 

As a note of disclosure, the server is located in the storage area of my basement and high noise levels are not an issue! 

Well I was beginning to be rather unimpressed when temps crept back up to between 31 -32 degrees however I am rather impressed at the moment since I am half way through a parity check and the temp has only gone up to 34 Degrees on the cache drive, which still runs hotter then the rest.

That is still a full 7 degrees below the temp alert threshold that was setting off the over temp emails.

 

 

Frank1940

 

If I can find a spot for the server besides right next to my desk I might replace the front push and the rear pull 120mm fans with high cfm versions. I have no idea how many cfm the stock ones are though.

That is MUCH better.  Amazing what that re-purposed pizza box did.

 

Joe L.