Dell PowerEdge 4300 User Manual page 84

.cfg file is required. You should run the RCU after installing or moving a PCI expansion
card to keep the system's database of available resources accurate.
If the RCU is not aware of an installed ISA expansion card, resource conflicts can
arise. For this reason, it is extremely important to enter information about ISA expan-
sion cards into the RCU. In addition, certain ISA graphics adapter cards and multiport
serial cards require some memory or caching reconfiguration provided by the RCU.
The RCU is included on the Dell Server Assistant CD shipped with your system. This
CD includes an RCU directory that contains the main program plus a directory of .cfg
files for many—but not all—ISA expansion cards.
You can run the RCU directly from the CD or from a diskette that you create using the
CD's main menu. Dell recommends that you run the RCU from a diskette because it is
not compatible with all operating systems. Also, using a diskette to run the utility
allows you to copy any system configuration changes to the diskette for safekeeping.
See Chapter 2, "Using the Dell Server Assistant CD," for instructions on creating an
RCU diskette.
When you buy an ISA expansion card, copy the appropriate configuration file (con-
tained in the .cfg directory on the diskette) to your RCU diskette. If the .cfg directory
does not contain a configuration file for your ISA expansion card, use the generic ISA
card configuration file, which is included in the .cfg directory on the CD. Instructions
for using the generic .cfg file are included in "Adding an Expansion Card" found later
in this chapter.
PCI expansion cards do not require a configuration file. The PCI configuration utility in
read-only memory (ROM) automatically uses the information maintained by the RCU
to assign resources for PCI expansion cards.
Whenever you add or remove non-Plug and Play ISA expansion cards, you must run
the RCU to ensure that no two cards attempt to use the same resources (such as
interrupt request [IRQ] lines).
After the RCU has configured all your non-Plug and Play ISA cards and all your Plug
and Play and PCI expansion cards, you can use the utility to lock the configuration of
your Plug and Play and PCI expansion cards so that they are always assigned the
same resources. See "Lock/Unlock Boards" found later in this chapter for details.
5-2 Dell PowerEdge 4300 Systems User's Guide