any plans to upgrade kernel soon?

[adante]

Just curious if there are any plans to upgrade the kernel any time soon.

The inability to run ubuntu 9.10 or I imagine any distro that relies on a recent kernel image is kind of annoying. Especially considering it is now 2010/6.

[Aaron]

Hi adante,

We currently use the kernel that comes with CentOS/RHEL, if the latest version available does support Ubuntu 9, then we would be more than happy to look into installing this kernel. I'm not aware which kernel is required, however last I checked the latest CentOS/RHEL kernels did not work. I'll have another look into this, and see what we can do.

[jazd]

What is the reason for using the RHEL/CentOS kernels with other distros? Is it not possible to use the default kernels that come with Ubuntu for example?

I'm going to assume its something to do with the virtualisation, isn't it possible to get Ubuntu/Debian kernels that have virtualisation optimisations as well?

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by jazd

What is the reason for using the RHEL/CentOS kernels with other distros? Is it not possible to use the default kernels that come with Ubuntu for example?

I'm going to assume its something to do with the virtualisation, isn't it possible to get Ubuntu/Debian kernels that have virtualisation optimisations as well?

We use CentOS on the host nodes, and hence why we use them for the DomU nodes. They are pre-packaged and allow us ensure all kernels are using a stable tested version.

I'm sure it would be possible to use Ubuntu kernels if we did a bit of hacking, however cause issues down the track. It would also break a lot of our automation.

Yes you can use Ubuntu or Debian kernels with Xen as well, however its not as easy as just "using them". They have to be used in conjunction with our CentOS systems, and also have to work with our automation systems (which with our current testing will not work).

Hope this clears up any confusion!

[jazd]

I can understand using RHEL 5.5 for Dom0. After reading up a bit yesterday what I found was that kernels used to be needed to be patched for paravirtualisation support before about 2.6.26, however nowdays they don't. So a stock Ubuntu 10.04 kernel should work fine. Also If you are using a CPU with Intel VT-x virtualisation extensions such as the Xeon E5506 which is used on the host of my VM then it shouldn't matter what kernel you are using. Special kernels are only required for Dom0.

So from my understanding the reason you aren't changing is not because it wont work but because you don't want to change from the way you have always done it i.e. if it ain't broke don't fix it. That's not necessarily a bad thing when trying to keep a heap of virtual servers stable but surely you cant just keep offering Ubuntu 9.04 for ever and not offer 10.04 LTS (Long time support).

[ross]

Hi jazd,

There are a few things to consider, yes stability is a major one, also downtime, and the demand for Ubuntu 10.04.

Yes it is in our plans to update our Kernel's to support the running for Ubuntu 10.04 on our Linux VPS Servers. However this is something we have to plan and test thoroughly as we have quite a large amount of Linux VPS node's that will need to be upgraded.

Currently we have several other plans and projects that are taking priority. Though it is something we want to support in the future the downtime incurred and planning is offset partially by the fact the majority of our Customers VPs's are centos not ubuntu. Ubuntu makes up a very small portion of our hosted linux VPS customers.

So no it's not a matter of if it ain't broke don't fix it, it's a matter of weighing all options and then creating a plan of attack that way. We are still at the weighing all options point.