The operation of various system components generates heat. Maintaining an appropriate
operating temperature inside the system chassis is therefore critical. Fans are one
component that help with temperature control.
Some fan probes monitor fan status by measuring fan RPM. Other fan probes report an ON
or OFF status for a particular fan. Fan probes report the RPM or ON/OFF status to the
Server Administrator instrumentation service. When you select Fans from the device
tree, details appear in the data area on the right-hand side of the Server
Administrator window.
User Privileges
Selection |
User Privileges |
U=User; P=Power User; A=Administrator; NA=Not Applicable |
|
View |
Manage |
Fan Probes Information |
U, P, A |
P, A |
Fan Redundancy
 |
NOTE: The fields listed on this page
cover possible configurations. Some features may not be present on your system. |
Systems can be designed with redundant fans to prevent system shutdown due to fan
failure. When fans are present in a system, being able to see that one or two fans have
failed enables administrators to replace fans and restore redundancy before the last fan
failure causes the entire system to fail.
Redundancy Status |
Status can be Full, Degraded,
or Lost. If the number of fans in a system that is required for full redundancy
is three, then:
- Redundancy status is Full when three fans are working.
- Redundancy status is Degraded when two fans are working.
- Redundancy status is Lost when one fan is working.
Full redundancy is defined by system specification. Degraded redundancy means that one
or more of the extra fans is not working in the normal range. Lost redundancy means that
there are no backup fans available to take over for the minimum number required, but at
least one fan is working.
Critical/Failure status would describe a system that had no working fan, and
redundancy is designed to make this sort of system failure unlikely. |
Number of Devices
Required for Full Redundancy |
Your system has a number of fans
defined for full redundancy. If the number of fans required for Full redundancy is three,
redundancy is degraded when two fans are working, and lost when only one fan is working. |
Fan Status Information
Critical components have an event type associated with them at all times. Status is a
shorthand term for the component's event type. Status can be given for a component's
operational state as well as for its redundancy state, if applicable. See "Event Type Definitions and Component Health" for more
information on status and related concepts.
Some fan probes monitor fan status by measuring fan RPM. Other fan probes report an ON
or OFF status for a particular fan. When you select Fans from the device tree,
details appear in the data area in the right-hand side of the Server Administrator
window. Fan status is one of the following states:
 |
|
Normal/OK |
 |
|
Warning/Noncritical |
 |
|
Critical/Nonrecoverable |
(Blank) |
|
Unknown |
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Fan Probe Fields
Some fan probe fields differ according to the type of firmware that your system has:
BMC or ESM.
 |
NOTE: The fields listed on this page
cover possible configurations. |
 |
NOTE: For some probes, the value for Reading
is "Good" or "Bad" rather than an editable, numeric value. |
 |
NOTE: Some threshold values are not
editable on BMC-based systems. |
Status |
Displays whether the event type for the probe is
Normal/OK, Warning/Noncritical, or Failure/Nonrecoverable. |
Probe Name |
Displays the alphanumeric
text that uniquely identifies a fan probe; for example, CPU Fan, or BMC FAN 1A. |
Reading |
Displays a snapshot of a
fan RPM measured by the probe at a given time. |
Minimum Warning Threshold |
Displays the lowest
acceptable fan RPM that is recommended for system operation. Values that fall below this
RPM level result in warning events. |
Maximum Warning Threshold |
Displays the highest
acceptable fan RPM that is recommended for system operation. Values that exceed this fan
RPM result in warning events. |
Minimum Failure Threshold |
Displays the lowest
acceptable fan RPM that is required for system operation. Values that fall below this fan
RPM result in critical/failure events. |
Maximum Failure Threshold |
Displays the highest
acceptable fan RPM that is required for system operation. Values that exceed this fan RPM
result in critical/failure events. |
Managing Fan Probes
For information on how to set warning thresholds for fan probes, see "Edit Fan Probes."
For information on how to set alert actions for fan probes, see "Set Alert Actions."
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Other Window Controls
Print |
Prints a copy of the open window to your default
printer. |
Export |
Saves a text file containing the contents of this window (the
values of each data field separated by a customizable delimiter) to a destination you
specify. |
Email |
E-mails the contents of this window to your
designated recipient. See the Server Administrator User's Guide for instructions
about configuring your Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server. |
Refresh |
Redraws the screen. |
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