Dell R730 ESXi NVIDIA VM Fan Control

Important

This project provides scripts to control the fan speeds of a Dell PowerEdge R730 server based on GPU and CPU temperatures. It uses IPMI commands to adjust fan speeds dynamically.

Table of Contents

1. Prerequisites
2. Configuration
3. Scripts
4. Setup as a System Service
5. How It Works
6. Example Commands
7. View Logs
8. Troubleshooting
9. License

Prerequisites

• ipmitool: Install with sudo apt install ipmitool
• nvidia-smi: Comes with NVIDIA drivers or sudo apt install nvidia-utils-xxx

Configuration

Edit the ipmi_config.cfg file to set your IPMI host, user, password, and temperature thresholds.

# DELL IPMI Configuration
IPMI_HOST=192.168.1.xxx
IPMI_USER=root
IPMI_PASSWORD=your-password
IPMI_YKEY=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000

# Temperature thresholds (in °C)
VERY_LOW_TEMP_THRESHOLD=30
LOW_TEMP_THRESHOLD=40
MID_TEMP_THRESHOLD=60
HIGH_TEMP_THRESHOLD=75
VERY_HIGH_TEMP_THRESHOLD=85

# Fan speed settings (in percentage)
VERY_LOW_FAN_SPEED=20
LOW_FAN_SPEED=30
MID_FAN_SPEED=50
HIGH_FAN_SPEED=75
VERY_HIGH_FAN_SPEED=100

Scripts

fan-control.sh This script continuously monitors the temperatures of the GPUs and CPUs and adjusts the fan speeds accordingly.

reset.sh This script resets the fan control to automatic mode.

status.sh This script displays the current temperatures of the GPUs and CPUs.

Setup as a System Service

Tip

To set up the fan control script as a systemd service, follow these steps:

1. Install the Service - Run the install-system-service.sh script to install the service.

chmod +x install-system-service.sh
sudo ./install-system-service.sh

2. Uninstall the Service - If you need to uninstall the service, run the uninstall-service.sh script.

chmod +x uninstall-service.sh
sudo ./uninstall-service.sh

How It Works

1. Configuration Loading
   • Each script loads the configuration from ipmi_config.cfg
2. Temperature Monitoring
   • The fan-control.sh script uses nvidia-smi to get GPU temperatures and ipmitool to get CPU temperatures
3. Fan Speed Adjustment
   • Based on the highest temperature detected, the script sets the fan speed using IPMI commands.
4. Service Management
   • The install-system-service.sh script sets up the fan-control.sh script as a systemd service, ensuring it starts on boot and restarts if it fails.

Example Commands

• Check Service Status

sudo systemctl status fan-control.service

• Start Service

sudo systemctl start fan-control.service

• Stop Service

sudo systemctl stop fan-control.service

View Logs

Important

sudo tail -f /var/log/fan-control.log

🗺️ Roadmap

• Fix folder structure
• Run logs & output debug lines to systemd - still need to learn how that works

Troubleshooting

• Ensure all required packages are installed.
• Verify the IPMI configuration in ipmi_config.cfg.
• Check the logs at /var/log/fan-control.log for any errors.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.