H13SAE-MF works perfectly #83

apethree · 2025-09-22T21:52:40Z

apethree
Sep 22, 2025

I wanted to drop some feedback and thanks— I’ve been running SMFC v4.1.0 on a Supermicro H13SAE‑MF (AST2600 BMC) system, and it works perfectly to control fan speeds and keep things quiet, where direct ipmitool threshold commands failed to change the LC threshold.

When trying to set thresholds manually with ipmitool sensor thresh "FAN4" …, I got errors like “Valid threshold … not specified!” or “Command illegal for specified sensor or record type”. Seems like the BMC is locked down or omits certain thresholds in its SDR for many fan sensors. Fans were behaving as if there was a minimum floor — they’re not revving wildly up and down, which means SMFC is taking over well.

⚠ BMC limitations
• Certain thresholds are locked or “not available” per sensor (especially on boards like H13SAE‑MF).
• Manual threshold setting often fails because the SDR (sensor definitions in the BMC) doesn’t list those thresholds as valid or writable.

🌟 Thank you

Huge thanks to petersulyok and the SMFC community for designing SMFC with support for these newer AST2600‐based Supermicro boards. It works great, simplifies fan / temperature management, and avoids a bunch of wrestling with locked down IPMI commands.

petersulyok · 2025-09-23T11:57:05Z

petersulyok
Sep 23, 2025
Maintainer

Hi @apethree, thanks for the feedback, I appreciate that.

As @hcgonzalezpr reported for X13SAE-F motherboard in issue #33, the AST2600 has only one threshold for fans, like in this sample:

Sensor ID              : CPU_FAN1 (0x41)
 Entity ID             : 29.1
 Sensor Type (Threshold)  : Fan
 Sensor Reading        : 420 (+/- 0) RPM
 Status                : ok
 Lower Non-Recoverable : na
 Lower Critical        : 140.000
 Lower Non-Critical    : na
 Upper Non-Critical    : na
 Upper Critical        : na
 Upper Non-Recoverable : na
 Positive Hysteresis   : 140.000
 Negative Hysteresis   : 140.000
 Assertion Events      :
 Assertions Enabled    : lcr-
 Deassertions Enabled  : lcr-

This is the reason why ipmitool generates such an output:

$ ipmitool sensor thresh CPU_FAN1 lower 0 100 200

Locating sensor record 'CPU_FAN1'...
Setting sensor "CPU_FAN1" Lower Non-Recoverable threshold to 0.000
Error setting threshold: Command illegal for specified sensor or record type
Setting sensor "CPU_FAN1" Lower Critical threshold to 100.000
Setting sensor "CPU_FAN1" Lower Non-Critical threshold to 200.000
Error setting threshold: Command illegal for specified sensor or record type

It means that only Lower Critical threshold was accepted, the other two values are not used for AST2600.
What will happen if you use only this?

$ ipmitool sensor thresh CPU_FAN1 lower 100

0 replies

apethree · 2025-09-24T09:12:54Z

apethree
Sep 24, 2025
Author

Fan - 2x [NF-A14x25r G2 PWM]
CPU Cooler - NH D15 G2 LBC

I don't know why but maybe you already know the reasoning. If I run the following commands on H13SAE-MF it lowers the critical fan speed to 140 instead of default 280. But it doesn't go any lower.

(base) local-xxx@local-xxxx~$ sudo ipmitool sensor thresh FAN1 lower 100.0 150.0 200.0
Locating sensor record 'FAN1'...
Setting sensor "FAN1" Lower Non-Recoverable threshold to 100.000
Error setting threshold: Command illegal for specified sensor or record type
Setting sensor "FAN1" Lower Critical threshold to 150.000
Setting sensor "FAN1" Lower Non-Critical threshold to 200.000
Error setting threshold: Command illegal for specified sensor or record type

If I run any other command like these I cannot change it beyond 140. It's either 140 or 280.

sudo ipmitool sensor thresh FAN2 lower 80.0 80.0 200.0
sudo ipmitool sensor thresh FAN1 lower 50.0 75.0 100.0

Command that you suggested to run lowered the LC to 140 from 280. I ran this command:

sudo ipmitool sensor thresh FAN1 lower 100 100 100

(base) local-lind@local-lind-System:~$ sudo ipmitool sensor thresh FAN1 lower 100
usage: sensor thresh <id> lower <lnr> <lcr> <lnc>
(base) local-lind@local-lind-System:~$ sudo ipmitool sensor thresh FAN1 lower 100 140 200
Locating sensor record 'FAN1'...
Setting sensor "FAN1" Lower Non-Recoverable threshold to 100.000
Error setting threshold: Command illegal for specified sensor or record type
Setting sensor "FAN1" Lower Critical threshold to 140.000
Setting sensor "FAN1" Lower Non-Critical threshold to 200.000
Error setting threshold: Command illegal for specified sensor or record type

@petersulyok FYI!

0 replies

petersulyok · 2025-09-29T16:20:06Z

petersulyok
Sep 29, 2025
Maintainer

I suggested only one threshold parameter:

sudo ipmitool sensor thresh FAN1 lower 100

Please try that one. not sure if that works.

2 replies

apethree Sep 29, 2025
Author

In the previous post I added this:

(base) local-lind@local-lind-System:~$ sudo ipmitool sensor thresh FAN1 lower 100
usage: sensor thresh <id> lower <lnr> <lcr> <lnc>


(base) local-lind@local-lind-System:~$ sudo ipmitool sensor thresh FAN1 lower 100 140 200
Locating sensor record 'FAN1'...
Setting sensor "FAN1" Lower Non-Recoverable threshold to 100.000
Error setting threshold: Command illegal for specified sensor or record type
Setting sensor "FAN1" Lower Critical threshold to 140.000
Setting sensor "FAN1" Lower Non-Critical threshold to 200.000
Error setting threshold: Command illegal for specified sensor or record type

sudo ipmitool sensor thresh FAN1 lower 100 is not a valid usage of impitool. Maybe on some old version it works but not on ipmitool version 1.8.1. It needs lnr lcr lnc

petersulyok Oct 8, 2025
Maintainer

Thanks for clarifying that.
For me, it means that ipmitool expect 3 threshold parameters, but AST2600 can accept only 1.
I know it is confusing but it is not an real problem.

Navigation Menu

H13SAE-MF works perfectly #83

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Replies: 3 comments 2 replies

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{editor}}'s edit

{{editor}}'s edit

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

{{title}}

Uh oh!

Select a reply

Uh oh!

H13SAE-MF works perfectly #83

Uh oh!

apethree Sep 22, 2025

Replies: 3 comments · 2 replies

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

petersulyok Sep 23, 2025 Maintainer

Uh oh!

apethree Sep 24, 2025 Author

Uh oh!

petersulyok Sep 29, 2025 Maintainer

Uh oh!

apethree Sep 29, 2025 Author

Uh oh!

petersulyok Oct 8, 2025 Maintainer

apethree
Sep 22, 2025

Replies: 3 comments 2 replies

petersulyok
Sep 23, 2025
Maintainer

apethree
Sep 24, 2025
Author

petersulyok
Sep 29, 2025
Maintainer

apethree Sep 29, 2025
Author

petersulyok Oct 8, 2025
Maintainer