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    Watchguard Firebox M400/M500

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    • E
      eisenb11 @ghengis5
      last edited by

      @ghengis5 I'm very happy with the thermals so far.

      I have the M400 in the second top spot of a full (and hot) 22U rack in my office. Ambient office temp is in the low 70s F. When I last checked, the M400 was running at 27.9 C (~ 82 F), I believe.

      The only thermal-specific changes that I made was the Noctua fans and I switched the TIM to Arctic Ceramique when I replaced the CPU.

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        The sunon fans run waaay faster than required. I have the lowest speed set far lower, they are very quiet at idle, and the CPU temp stays cool. I have no doubt the Noctua fans are more than adequate. The cooling solution in that chassis was designed for higher TDP CPUs.

        Steve

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        • G
          ghengis5 @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10 I have the i3-4130 is 54 TDP. Not sure if the fans will cool the CPU...

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            They will. That's only very slightly higher than the standard CPU. But bare in mind that is the maximum power dissipation required. It's given so that system designers can use an appropriate cooling system. The CPU will be using only a fraction of that power most of the time. The entire system uses a lot less that 54W most of the time unless the CPU is worked hard.

            Steve

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            • E
              eisenb11 @Scorch95
              last edited by

              This post is deleted!
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              • E
                eisenb11 @Scorch95
                last edited by

                @scorch95 said in Watchguard Firebox M400:

                I recently found my m400 has issues doing reboots. It seems to hang at the end of the shutdown and never actually restarts. It can perform a halt correctly just not a reboot. Anyone else have this issue?

                I can confirm that I'm having this issue as well when I select "Reboot" from the Diagnostics -> Reboot GUI option.

                The system appears to hang, so I need to turn it off (hold the power button for a few seconds) and turn it back on. Happens 100% of the time.

                I'm on the latest release version: 2.4.4

                Minor annoyance, but would be neat if anyone knows how to fix this?

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                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  It's usually some ACPI issue when that happens. Did it happen with the default CPU?

                  Steve

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                  • E
                    eisenb11 @stephenw10
                    last edited by eisenb11

                    @stephenw10 said in Watchguard Firebox M400:

                    It's usually some ACPI issue when that happens. Did it happen with the default CPU?

                    Steve

                    I rebooted it once from the serial console without issue when I did the install. Didn't try the GUI option because I shut it down once I had it configured.

                    Then it stayed off until I put it in service after the CPU swap.

                    Edit -

                    Actually in hindsight, I think I did reboot it once from the GUI with the original CPU without issue.

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Reboots no problem here with the original Celeron. I wouldn't actually expect a CPU swap to cause that really. Maybe reset the CMOS to be sure you haven't picked up some odd setting.

                      Steve

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                      • E
                        eisenb11 @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10 said in Watchguard Firebox M400:

                        Reboots no problem here with the original Celeron. I wouldn't actually expect a CPU swap to cause that really. Maybe reset the CMOS to be sure you haven't picked up some odd setting.

                        Steve

                        Perhaps it more likely has to do with the storage swap?

                        I believe that Scorch and I both have our systems booting from SSD. I have no CF card loaded into the reader.

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          Could be. I'm running from CF and hence have no SWAP and have /var and /tmp as RAM drives.

                          Steve

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                          • E
                            eisenb11 @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10 is there a shutdown option via the GUI? I could just as easily use that when I want to reboot and then just press the power button. Or just ssh in and halt?

                            It’s a workaround but, realistically, rebooting is a rare occasion.

                            Thanks

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                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Yup, Diag > Halt System.

                              You can also do a graceful shutdown using the button. It works as an ACPI power button.

                              Steve

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                              • E
                                eisenb11 @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10 Awesome, thanks!

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                                • Z
                                  zanthos
                                  last edited by

                                  Hi there,
                                  I recently purchased a used M400.

                                  What about upgrading to a Intel Xeon E3-1285L v3 3.1GHz?
                                  If the microcode in the BIOS should be missing, I guess it could be injected and thus enabled…

                                  Any other suggested CPU upgrade?

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                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    Might work. The Lanner unit it's based on lists i3, i5 and i7 only. They don't list Celeron though so....

                                    Steve

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                                    • Z
                                      zanthos @zanthos
                                      last edited by

                                      @zanthos said in Watchguard Firebox M400:

                                      Hi there,
                                      I recently purchased a used M400.

                                      What about upgrading to a Intel Xeon E3-1285L v3 3.1GHz?
                                      If the microcode in the BIOS should be missing, I guess it could be injected and thus enabled…

                                      Any other suggested CPU upgrade?

                                      A quick update:
                                      Intel Xeon E3-1285L v3 @3.1GHz is just Plug'n'Play. It works out of the box ☺ ✌
                                      I haven't done any further testing. Also i couldn't check for any BIOS Errors, since I have no VGA screen attached and the serial console is silent...

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                                      • M
                                        Myst412 @stephenw10
                                        last edited by Myst412

                                        @stephenw10

                                        Sorry to bother,

                                        Do you recall the exact settings you changed in order to reduce fan speed? I lowered all of the Fanout values significantly (not much documentation from AMI on Fan out) and they're still screaming on my M500

                                        I also noticed 2 sets of values under Main and then the corresponding heirarchy. Does location matter?

                                        Also, did you try getting a BIOS from Lanner?

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          I found you have to set the values in both places. The whole editing process seems quite flaky to be honest.

                                          I did not try to get a BIOS from Lanner.

                                          0_1546173380191_Selection_541.png

                                          Steve

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                                          • M
                                            Myst412
                                            last edited by Myst412

                                            @stephenw10

                                            Got it, editing the failsafe values seemed to take effect. Got PFsense loaded thanks to your ZFS auto install suggestion for UEFI. It was able to boot on all 3 SATA ports, no USB booting unfortunately, possibly needs UEFI as well.

                                            Now just the green light.

                                            Going from Atom Z525 to a 4160T. Should be able to make use of the 1GB connection I pay for now.

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