Hello all,

I have a semi-established server - it's been up roughly 2 months or so without issue after transferring my array from the old server. I do have one thing that is driving me nutty - starting about 2 weeks or so ago, the fans for the server randomly rev up to full speed for about 30 seconds. This is VERY LOUD and you can hear it all the way downstairs. I enabled IPMI but have not yet gotten it to connect network wise, so that is out.

As soon as I get in via SSH and look at htop, I don't see any obvious cause for what is causing the revving. I don't see anything in syslog either. Whatever it is, it's either not getting logged, or I am just missing it when I ssh in.

Can anyone suggest some sort of monitoring app I can install to log what is going on when this happens?

Thank you!

Sound like you need to adjust the threshold for the fans. Since IPMI is out, you can try the fan ctrl plus plugin. I can't remember if it has a logging feature. What MB is it? If you have been messing with IPMI and maybe reset the BMC, that might the reason for the revving and you need to adjust the thresholds for the fans.

My server is a supermicro SV-6028R-E1CR24N so I think the motherboard is a X10DSC+. I have not accessed IPMI once so far, it doesn't seem to be accessible despite enabling it in the bios - it's just not reachable over the network. I will mess with it some more when I get off work. TLDR, all the IPMI settings are whatever it shipped with.

I did remove the file integrity plugin just now - I never actually set it up - as I read that can cause it. Keeping an ear out for revving subsequent to that.

edit: I just heard them spinup. I was already ssh'd in. I don't see anything odd in this htop.

Edited December 26, 2025Dec 26 by Ouze
screenshot of htop activity

Supermicro motherboards sometimes interpret low fan speeds as a fan failure, which causes all fans to spin up to 100% (fan "panic" mode) until the perceived "failing" fan's speed increases. You need to check and adjust the lower non-recoverable (LNR) and upper non-recoverable (UNR) fan speed thresholds. Either via IPMI or maybe use the fanctlr plus plugin as I mentioned (you might need to disable IPMI if possible), install the system temp plugin to monitor temps. Since this is a fairly new server, I assume there is no dust in the fans and the server itself?

Edit: Have you installed the IPMI plugin by the way, and you're not able to connect with that? Been a while since I replaced my SuperMicro board, but when I used the IPMI plugin, I didn't need to set it up with a network connection.

Edited December 26, 2025Dec 26 by strike

9 hours ago, strike said:

I didn't need to set it up with a network connection.

Yep, that's not needed, and you can use to check the IPMI event log, if there's a fan going below the LNR value, it will show up there