HPE ProLiant G8/G9 Autofan Controller

Standalone thermal fan controller for HP ProLiant Gen8/Gen9 servers with modded iLO4 firmware.

Companion to: iLO Fan Controller Web UI

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Features

• Per-sensor fan curves — each sensor has its own temperature-to-fan mapping
• Hybrid sensor reading — lm-sensors for CPU temps, ipmitool sdr for BMC sensors
• Fan control via SSH to iLO4 (fan p <n> lock <speed>)
• Outdoor temperature integration via Open-Meteo API
• Adaptive cooling detection — correlates inlet vs outdoor temp to detect AC / open window
• Proactive boost when ambient OR critical sensors are elevated
• Escalation mode — if temps keep rising for 3 min despite fan speed, progressively override curve limits
• Auto de-escalation when temps stabilize
• Cooling discount when active cooling (AC) is detected
• Failsafe mode on sensor read failure (defaults to 80%)

Fan Curve Targets

Season	Condition	Fan Speed
Winter (night)	Low load, cold ambient	~28%
Spring / Fall	Normal operation	~34%
Summer (day)	High ambient + load	max 50%
Summer (evening + AC)	Cooling active	~42%
Escalation	Temps rising >3 min	up to 100%
Critical	Any sensor at critical temp	100%

Sensors

Sensor	Source	Priority	Normal Range	Critical
HD Controller	ipmitool	🔴 Primary	50–75°C	100°C
LOM Card	ipmitool	🔴 Primary	45–70°C	90°C
CPU 1 & 2	lm-sensors	🟡 Secondary	40–65°C	90°C
Chipset	ipmitool	🟡 Secondary	40–55°C	95°C
Inlet Ambient	ipmitool	⚪ Reference	20–30°C	45°C

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• lm-sensors, sshpass, ipmitool, python3-yaml
• HP ProLiant Gen8/Gen9 with modded iLO4 firmware (SSH fan control)
• OpenSSH 10 compatible (Debian 13 / Trixie tested)

Install

git clone https://github.com/IT-Kuny/HPE-Proliant-G8-G9-Autofan-Controller.git
cd HPE-Proliant-G8-G9-Autofan-Controller

# Install (as root)
bash install.sh

# Set iLO credentials
echo 'ILO_PASSWORD=your_password_here' > /etc/fan-controller/env
chmod 600 /etc/fan-controller/env

# Test with dry-run first
python3 /opt/fan-controller/fan-controller.py -c /etc/fan-controller/config.yaml --dry-run --once

# Go live
systemctl enable --now fan-controller

Security: /etc/fan-controller/ is restricted to root (700/600). iLO credentials never leave the server.

Usage

# One-shot dry run (test sensors + fan calculation)
python3 fan-controller.py -c config.yaml --dry-run --once

# Continuous dry run (monitor without changing fans)
python3 fan-controller.py -c config.yaml --dry-run

# Live operation
python3 fan-controller.py -c config.yaml

# Check service status
systemctl status fan-controller
journalctl -u fan-controller -f

Configuration

Edit /etc/fan-controller/config.yaml:

• Fan curves — per-sensor [temperature, fan_percent] mappings
• Outdoor integration — latitude/longitude for Open-Meteo, boost thresholds
• Adaptive cooling — correlation-based AC detection with fan discount
• Escalation — window, step size, and max override for rising temps
• Failsafe — fallback fan speed on sensor read failures

How It Works

Every 15 seconds:
  1. Read all sensor temps (IPMI + lm-sensors)
  2. Fetch outdoor temp (cached, every 10 min)
  3. Evaluate per-sensor fan curves → highest wins
  4. Apply outdoor boost if ambient + sensors elevated
  5. Apply escalation if temps rising >3 min
  6. Apply AC discount if active cooling detected
  7. Set fans via SSH to iLO4

License

MIT