Make IPMI fan control temperature-aware without Docker

Manual fan mode pins the fans at a fixed duty and never ramps, so a sustained
load had no cooling response until the BMC's own critical-temperature
override stepped in. docker-idrac.sh solved that, but needs Docker, which is
not installed on the host.

ipmi-fancontrol-daemon polls the CPU sensors and switches between the fixed
duty and the BMC's automatic curve around a threshold, which is what that
container did. Measured on the host: 1440 RPM pinned versus roughly 4200 RPM
on the automatic curve at the same 60C.

- Hysteresis, default 5C, stops the fans oscillating at the boundary.
- An unreadable temperature fails safe to automatic rather than staying
  pinned.
- SIGTERM restores the automatic curve, with ExecStopPost as the backstop for
  an outright kill.

Default to the local "open" interface. It needs no credentials and no
network, which matters for the shutdown path, where lanplus to the iDRAC
could fail once networking is down. ipmi-fancontrol-auto and -manual honour
the same setting and stay available for ad-hoc use.

Enable the third-party PCIe cooling response suppression that docker-idrac.sh
was configured with, so the automatic curve is not held to a raised floor by
the aftermarket NICs.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
ergosteur
2026-08-06 16:31:05 +00:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent af838987dd
commit 00384e7463
5 changed files with 207 additions and 27 deletions
+122
View File
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
#!/bin/bash
# Temperature-aware IPMI fan control for Dell PowerEdge / iDRAC.
#
# Holds the fans at a fixed low duty while the CPUs are cool, and hands control
# back to the BMC's automatic curve once they get hot, so there is still a
# thermal response under load. This is the native equivalent of the
# tigerblue77/dell_idrac_fan_controller container, without needing Docker.
#
# Run under ipmi-fancontrol.service. Configuration lives in
# conf/ipmi-fancontrol.conf (see conf/ipmi-fancontrol.conf.example).
set -uo pipefail
SCRIPT_DIR=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)
CONFIG=${IPMI_FANCONTROL_CONFIG:-$SCRIPT_DIR/conf/ipmi-fancontrol.conf}
if [[ ! -r "$CONFIG" ]]; then
echo "Error: cannot read $CONFIG" >&2
echo "Copy conf/ipmi-fancontrol.conf.example there and fill it in." >&2
exit 1
fi
# shellcheck source=/dev/null
. "$CONFIG"
: "${IPMI_INTERFACE:=open}"
: "${FAN_SPEED:=0x15}"
: "${CPU_TEMP_THRESHOLD:=70}"
: "${CPU_TEMP_HYSTERESIS:=5}"
: "${CHECK_INTERVAL:=60}"
: "${DISABLE_THIRD_PARTY_PCIE_COOLING_RESPONSE:=false}"
RESUME_AT=$((CPU_TEMP_THRESHOLD - CPU_TEMP_HYSTERESIS))
# Build the ipmitool invocation once. The local "open" interface needs no
# credentials and no network, so it is the better choice for a polling loop;
# lanplus stays available for reaching a BMC over the network.
if [[ "$IPMI_INTERFACE" == "lanplus" ]]; then
: "${IPMI_HOST:?not set in $CONFIG}"
: "${IPMI_USER:?not set in $CONFIG}"
: "${IPMI_PASSWORD:?not set in $CONFIG}"
export IPMI_PASSWORD
IPMITOOL=(ipmitool -I lanplus -H "$IPMI_HOST" -U "$IPMI_USER" -E)
else
IPMITOOL=(ipmitool -I open)
fi
# stdout goes to the journal under systemd.
log() { echo "$*"; }
set_manual() {
"${IPMITOOL[@]}" raw 0x30 0x30 0x01 0x00 >/dev/null &&
"${IPMITOOL[@]}" raw 0x30 0x30 0x02 0xff "$FAN_SPEED" >/dev/null
}
set_auto() {
"${IPMITOOL[@]}" raw 0x30 0x30 0x01 0x01 >/dev/null
}
# Highest CPU temperature in degrees C, or empty if none could be read.
# CPU sensors are entity 3.x; 7.x is the system board (inlet/exhaust).
max_cpu_temp() {
"${IPMITOOL[@]}" sdr type temperature 2>/dev/null | awk -F'|' '
$4 ~ /^[[:space:]]*3\./ {
if (match($5, /-?[0-9]+/)) {
t = substr($5, RSTART, RLENGTH) + 0
if (!seen || t > max) max = t
seen = 1
}
}
END { if (seen) print max }
'
}
MODE=""
cleanup() {
log "Stopping: returning fan control to the BMC automatic curve."
set_auto || log "Warning: failed to restore automatic fan control."
exit 0
}
trap cleanup TERM INT
if [[ "$DISABLE_THIRD_PARTY_PCIE_COOLING_RESPONSE" == "true" ]]; then
if "${IPMITOOL[@]}" raw 0x30 0xce 0x00 0x16 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x05 0x00 0x01 0x00 0x00 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
log "Disabled the third-party PCIe card default cooling response."
else
log "Warning: could not disable the third-party PCIe cooling response."
fi
fi
log "Starting: fans held at $FAN_SPEED below ${CPU_TEMP_THRESHOLD}C, automatic at or above it, re-engaging at ${RESUME_AT}C. Polling every ${CHECK_INTERVAL}s over $IPMI_INTERFACE."
while true; do
temp=$(max_cpu_temp)
if [[ -z "$temp" ]]; then
# Fail safe: if the temperature cannot be read, let the BMC cool the box.
if [[ "$MODE" != "auto" ]]; then
log "Cannot read CPU temperature; failing safe to automatic fan control."
set_auto && MODE="auto"
fi
elif (( temp >= CPU_TEMP_THRESHOLD )); then
if [[ "$MODE" != "auto" ]]; then
log "CPU at ${temp}C, at or above ${CPU_TEMP_THRESHOLD}C: handing control to the BMC automatic curve."
set_auto && MODE="auto"
fi
elif [[ -z "$MODE" ]] || (( temp <= RESUME_AT )); then
# The -z test makes the very first pass decide rather than drift, even
# if we start up inside the hysteresis band.
if [[ "$MODE" != "manual" ]]; then
log "CPU at ${temp}C, at or below ${RESUME_AT}C: holding fans at $FAN_SPEED."
set_manual && MODE="manual"
fi
fi
# Inside the hysteresis band we deliberately keep whatever mode we are in.
# Backgrounded so that SIGTERM interrupts the wait instead of being deferred
# until the sleep finishes.
sleep "$CHECK_INTERVAL" &
wait $!
done