How to Avoid NVMe related Overheating Issues

1. Maintain Recommended Temperature Thresholds

 When working with NVMe based storage, maintaining an ambient temperature below or equal to the specified threshold(s) is of critical importance. 

Overheating can result in a serious loss of performance and stability, and can jeopardize the long-term viability of the storage configuration. NVMe SSD’s that have exceeded the threshold may become unresponsive, or even drop offline, which can cripple RAID configurations and result in the loss of data. 

Make sure to use HighPoint NVMe RAID controllers and HBA’s with NVMe SSD’s that have been tested and certified for compatibility with HighPoint products. Compatibility lists are routinely updated, and are available for download from the Resources page or drop-down menu of each product series.

HighPoint NVMe controllers can be expected to perform normally when installed into a system that is able to maintain an ambient temperature equal to or below 55 degrees Celsius. Please consult the manufacturer provided specifications for each NVMe SSD’s temperature thresholds.

Please make sure the SSD7000 cooling system (heat sink, aluminum casings, fans and thermal pads) are securely fastened to the controller PCB after installing the NVMe media. Misalignments, loose connections or blockage will prevent the system from properly cooling the M.2 SSD’s and controller componentry. Additionally, make sure internal chassis cabling or components are not making contact with the SSD7000 controller’s heat sink, or blocking airflow to the fans. 

 We highly recommend customers install the WebGUI management software. WebGUI interface is capable of monitoring the temperature of each individual NVMe SSDs via the SHI tab (Storage Health Inspector). The SMART data reported by each SSD’s enables the WebGUI to display temperature in real-time.

2. Use the WebGUI to Monitor the Temperature and status of each NVMe SSD.

The SHI tab (Storage Health Inspector) can help you track and monitor the status of drives hosted by the controller – it can report useful information such as temperature, SMART status, and in the case of NVMe SSD’s, TBW (total bytes written). 

The Event tab will automatically log all device related errors or warnings – this information can be useful when attempting to troubleshoot a potential hardware problem.

To access the SMART attributes of an individual SSD: 

1. Log in to WebGUI (default user: RAID password: hpt).
2. Select the proper controller using the drop down menu on the top left.
3. Click the SHI tab.
4. Click SMART on the desired disk.
5. Click Enable to enable SMART monitoring.

Changing Temperature Threshold s

To ensure SSD’s operate within their recommended temperature thresholds, allow the drive’s SMART features to monitor disk temperatures. You can adjust the threshold using SHI– this will allow the WebGUI or controller alarm (if supported/enabled) to warn you when physical drives overheat.

a. Log in to WebGUI.

b. Select the controller from the drop down on the upper-left hand corner of the interface.

c. Click the SHI tab.

d. Enter the desired temperature threshold (°𝐹). In the provided field:

e. Click Set to save your setting.

f. When an SSD meets or exceeds this threshold, the WebGUI will log the incident under the Event tab, and display a warning message and sound the audible alarm (if supported and enabled). If Email notification has been enabled, the WebGUI will send a warning message to the specified Email address.