Easily manage your HP's server fans speeds, anywhere!
ℹ NOTE: The v1.0.0 is a complete rewrite of the tool, so any feedback is appreciated!
If you find any bug or have any suggestion, please open an issue. Thanks! 😄
This tool is a single PHP script that uses the php-curl extension to get the current server fan speeds from the iLO REST api and the php-ssh2 extension to set the fan speeds using the patched iLO SSH interface. You can also create custom presets to set a specific fan configuration with a single click, all with a simple and clean web interface made by using Alpine.js and TailwindCSS.
This tool requires a patched iLO firmware that expose to the iLO SSH interface some commands to manipulate the fans speeds. You can find more information about this patch on this Reddit post.
As of now, the patch (and so this tool) only works for Gen8 & Gen9 servers with iLO 4.
🚫 Gen10/11/12 servers with iLO 5/6/7 are not supported (and probably never will).
In my opinion, PHP is perfect for this type of tasks where you need to do some simple server-side stuff and something easy to deploy (you just need a web server with PHP installed).
See my original comment on r/homelab to know the story behind this tool!
If you found this tool useful, consider offering me a slice of (or entire) pizza using PayPal or GitHub Sponsors to support my work! Thank you so much! 🙏
If you already have a Docker environment, you can be up and running in minutes using the following command (obviously you need to change the value):
docker run -d --name ilo-fans-controller --restart always \
-p 8000:80 \
-e ILO_HOST='your-ilo-address' \
-e ILO_USERNAME='your-ilo-username' \
-e ILO_PASSWORD='your-ilo-password' \
ghcr.io/alex3025/ilo-fans-controller:latestOr if you prefer, you can use docker compose, as the docker-compose.yaml file is provided as well.
Check config.inc.php for all the available environment variables!
⚠ IMPORTANT! ⚠
Again, this tool works thanks to a patched iLO firmware that expose to the iLO SSH interface some commands to manipulate the fans speeds.
This patch is required to use this tool!
- An HP ProLiant DL380e Gen8 server
- Patched iLO 4 Advanced v2.77 (07 December 2020)
- A Proxmox container (LXC) running Ubuntu 22.04
- Apache 2 & PHP 8.1
-
Update the system:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -
Install the required packages (
apache2,php,php-curlandphp-ssh2):sudo apt-get install apache2 php php-curl php-ssh2
-
Download and extract the latest source code using
wgetandtar:wget -qL https://github.com/alex3025/ilo-fans-controller/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz -O - | tar -xz -
Enter the directory:
cd ilo-fans-controller-main
-
Open the
config.inc.phpfile you favourite text editor and change the variables according to your configuration.ℹ NOTE: Remember that
$ILO_HOSTis the IP address of your iLO interface, not of the server itself.ℹ NOTE: It's recommended to create a new iLO user with the minimum privileges required to access the SSH interface and the REST api (Remote Console Access).
Here is an example:
/* ILO ACCESS CREDENTIALS -------------- These are used to connect to the iLO interface and manage the fan speeds. */ $ILO_HOST = '192.168.1.69'; $ILO_USERNAME = 'Administrator'; $ILO_PASSWORD = 'AdministratorPassword1234';
-
When you're done, create a new subdirectory in your web server root directory (usually
/var/www/html/) and copy theconfig.inc.php,ilo-fans-controller.phpandfavicon.icoto it:sudo mkdir /var/www/html/ilo-fans-controller sudo cp config.inc.php ilo-fans-controller.php favicon.ico /var/www/html/ilo-fans-controller/
Then rename
ilo-fans-controller.phptoindex.php(to make it work without specifying the filename in the URL):sudo mv /var/www/html/ilo-fans-controller/ilo-fans-controller.php /var/www/html/ilo-fans-controller/index.php
-
That's it! Now you can reach the tool at
http://<your-server-ip>/ilo-fans-controller/(orhttp://<your-server-ip>/ilo-fans-controller/index.phpfor API requests).
ℹ NOTE: If the web server where you installed this tool will be reachable from outside your network, remember to setup some sort of authentication (like Basic Auth) to prevent unauthorized fan management at 2AM.
The first thing to do when you encounter a problem is to check the logs.
If you are using Apache, PHP errors are logged in the
/var/log/apache2/error.logfile.
If you think you found a bug, please open an issue and I'll take a look.
Below you can find some common problems and their solutions.
If you see the following error in the logs when you create a new preset:
PHP Warning: file_put_contents(presets.json): Failed to open stream: Permission denied in .../index.php on line X
This is probably because the presets.json file is not writable by the web server user.
To fix this, run the following command to change the file owner to www-data (the default Apache user):
sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/www/html/ilo-fans-controller/presets.jsonThe tool exposes a simple API that can be used to:
- Get current fan speeds from iLO
- Set the fan speeds
- Get all presets
- Create a preset
The following examples use cURL to show how to use the API, but you can use any other tool you want.
To use the following APIs you need to add ?api=fans at the end of the URL.
JSON structure (response)
cURL example
curl 'http://<server ip>/ilo-fans-controller/index.php?api=fans'JSON structure example
{
"action": "fans",
// You can use either an object or a single number value (that will be applied to all fans):
// Example: `fans: { ... }` or `fans: 50`
"fans": {
"Fan 1": 40,
"Fan 2": 23,
"Fan 5": 70
// ...
}
}cURL example
curl -X POST 'http://<server ip>/ilo-fans-controller/index.php' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"action": "fans", "fans": 50}'This command will set all fans to 50%.
I personally use this command to slow down the fans automatically when my server boots.
To use the following APIs you need to add ?api=preset at the end of the URL.
JSON structure (response)
[
{
"name": "Silent Mode",
"speeds": [15] // Like when setting the speeds, this number applies to all fans.
},
{
"name": "Normal Mode",
"speeds": [50]
},
{
"name": "Turbo Mode",
"speeds": [100]
},
{
"name": "My Custom Preset",
"speeds": [10, 10, 25, 30, 10, 15] // Here you can see the different speeds for each fan.
}
]cURL example
curl 'http://<server ip>/ilo-fans-controller/index.php?api=presets'JSON structure example
{
"action": "presets",
// WARNING: The API will replace all the saved presets with the new data!
// To add a preset you should get all the presets first and then add the new one to the existing array.
"presets": [
{
"name": "Silent Mode",
"speeds": [15]
},
{
"name": "Normal Mode",
"speeds": [50]
},
{
"name": "Turbo Mode",
"speeds": [100]
},
{
"name": "My Custom Preset",
"speeds": [10, 10, 25, 30, 10, 15]
}
]
}cURL example
curl -X POST 'http://<server ip>/ilo-fans-controller/index.php' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"action": "presets", "presets": [{"My Custom Preset 1": [50], "My Custom Preset 2": [10, 20, 30, 30, 20, 10]}]}'
{ "Fan 1": 85, "Fan 2": 48, "Fan 3": 69, "Fan 4": 18, "Fan 5": 44, "Fan 6": 96 }