Watchguard Firebox M400/M500
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It actually runs surprisingly quietly if you turn down the fan minimum speed to a rational level. Of course that's not easy because you can't access the BIOS to make that change. You can edit the BIOS defaults and re-upload it which is what I did but that's not without risk. It does mean you can enable speedstep etc at the same time though which that CPU does support.
It's probably possible to setup the fan controller in software as we did for other models in WGXepc. If I even find any free time I'll try to check it.Steve
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@stephenw10 Would you mind listing the steps you did to modify the BIOS?
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Sorry missed your reply.
Same steps as other devices. Dump the BIOS using flashrom a compatible tool, afudos in this case.
Open the rom end edit it using the appropriate tool for the version. It's an Aptio4 uefi bios so amibcp 4.x.
Since there's no way to enter the BIOS setup the only thing you can do is change the default values then reset the CMOS so it loads in the defaults you have set.
Flash it back and cross your fingers than nothing bad happened or it won't boot again and you'll be into SPI tools to recover it.The actual things you can edit there are very limited, only whatever is exposed. Much of what you might want to change, such as removing the password on the setup, is buried deep in the code.
Steve
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Just helped a buddy get an M400 up and working.. Easy Peasy.
No CF card installed as we tried this.
Loaded a USB memstick and booted from it using a 2.4.5 snapshot.
Wrote to HD installed in unit.Next boot came right up. Pretty much left all the defaults.
Next is to get the red light green.. :)
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Already green here.
Steve
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Got it green.. I only do these every year or so and have to go find my notes.. :)
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@chpalmer How did you guys get it to go green?
Just picked up a M400 and got it running as well. Longest part was waiting to get the CPU (I3-4370T) which I had to buy from Hungary - man are they hard to find!
Fabricated a SSD shelf. Replaced the Sunon fans with Noctua NF-A4x20 fans which run silent without needing resister packs or hacking the Bios.
To give back to this thread which helped me so much: Here are some things I learned in the process of getting it to work:
The wire mapping to use the M400's 5 pin connector with the Noctua PWM fan.
[noctua to 5 pin connector]
blue to blue
green to yellow
yellow to red
black to blackAlso, the memory. The model number is printed nowhere on it in case you're trying to do an exact match for another 4 GB. It's a Transcend TS512MLK72V6H.
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Use WGXepc64. Source. 64bit binary.
Read about its development here if you're interested:
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/29470/as-good-as-solved-watchguard-firebox-arm-disarm-ledSteve
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Is the SFP ports on the M400 1 or 10g?
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They are 1G
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@eisenb11 How is the CPU/ram temperature with the less powerful fans? The Noctua don't push anywhere near the amount of air the Sunon.
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@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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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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@stephenw10 I have the i3-4130 is 54 TDP. Not sure if the fans will cool the CPU...
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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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@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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It's usually some ACPI issue when that happens. Did it happen with the default CPU?
Steve
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@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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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
