I walked into my room and i heard a rattling noise. I put my ear on the server and the noise was coming from the back of the server. I turned off the server and waited a few and powered it back on. The noise came on instantly. After a while the noise went away and then came back.

Are there fans in the back of this server?
Could the fans be the issue if there is fans on the back?
Where can i get replacement fans?

Thanks in advanced

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EX490
CPU E6550
8TB HDD's
2GB RAM

Well it could be a bad fan or could be a bad drive.
Or simply could be dust bunnies built up on the fan blades.

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I would power off your server and give it a thorough cleaning. If you pull out the drives (remember what order they're in -- or at the very least remember which one was in the bottom spot), you can also carefully remove the disk's backplane. This would allow you to spray compressed air front to back and thoroughly clean out the fans. This would also be a good opportunity to vacuum the server and suck up any errant dust bunnies. I periodically vacuum my EX487 and EX490, as does accumulates on the server's door, and fans are notorious for getting dusty as well.

Once you've done that, put the backplane back in but don't insert any disks. Power on the server. If the rattle returns, you'll know it's a bad fan. If the noise is gone, then it was either a dust bunny or a bad disk. Power off the server and reinsert the disks, and power on again. If the sound returns, you've got a disk that's either got bad bearings and is on its way out or has already failed.

I'm willing to bet the problem is a fan. When fans reach the end of the road, they tend to make a lot of racket.

_________________
Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups

If it is a fan, you can get replacements most anywhere, some fans are fast some are slow.
There is a fan in the power supply as well, once you have figured out which one it is then you can look for a replacement.
I use the vac on the outside on my pc's/servers at least once a month and give them a good blasting at least once a year.
Good luck

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Fear the Cloud

I saw MSS fans on eBay but if you want a new fan then you will want to look for an 80mm 4 Pin PWM Fan but check the CFM Rating to make sure they are similar to what is in your server. Some fans push so much air they tend to get loud so you will need to look at how much noise the fans your looking at can generate as well. I don't have a recommended fan to use because I have been living off the fans I removed from the EX470's I repurposed for MSS Port Multipliers and I have another enclosure with a couple fans available to me should I need one.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Yeap it's the bottom fan on the back. Where can I get a great replacement

_________________
EX490
CPU E6550
8TB HDD's
2GB RAM

Read through this thread it will help you to find a replacement viewtopic.php?f=5&t=954

You do not have to remove the outer covers to remove the fans as they just slide to one side of the enclosure or the other so once you free up on fan the other fan will slide out in the opposite direction. You should remove the drives and the backplane to easily get at the fans. Take great care when removing the backplane so you do not damage the capacitors which face the fans. Often people will break them off and getting a replacement backplane is not something easy to find. Heck I sold all my extra backplanes so take great care with these or you will be into it more then a fan.

As I indicated these fans are PWM 4 Pin 80mm fans. Newegg sells them http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... =20&Page=1

I checked on eBay and the MSS Fans appear to have sold as I no longer see them listed. These things go quickly but I think I first saw the fans up about 1-2 weeks ago. Anyway keep in mind the CFM rating for air flow and the db rating for noise level also measure the fan width to make sure you do not buy a fan that's larger.

The MSS Fans are on silicon mounts and you can remove the mounts and reuse then but be careful not to break them when extracting them from the fan so you can reuse them with the new fan. If your happy with the new fan then why not purchase another and keep it on hand should the top fan have an issue. I am a firm believe if one fails the other might be right behind it so prepare for the event to happen and if it does not then you will be ready when it does.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8