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Question

Can DO notify customers whenever there is a new kernel?

  • Posted September 20, 2014

Hi, for security reasons, I would like to keep up to date with the latest Linux kernel whenever it is available.

My current understanding is that customers have to file a support ticket to request for new kernel, which means extra work for DO site engineers to handle the numerous tickets for the same request. And also, extra work for customers to file such support ticket.

Q1: How often is kernel update being carried out? Is there any plans to make this automatic and regular feature instead of an adhoc on demand basis? For example, I saw a security update for the kernel today, but I do not know whether it is crucial enough to send in a support ticket. If DO can carry out the upgrade on a regular basis, then customers would not need to research on the CVE to decide if we want to file a support ticket.

Q2: Can Digital Ocean send an email to us whenever a new kernel becomes available? Alternatively, DO can also make this information publicly available so that we do not need to log in frequently to check the list on the control panel setting.

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Andrew SB • September 24, 2014

A support ticket shouldn’t be necessary in most cases. The team imports new kernels on a regular basis, and they are available to all users when this is done. A support ticket is only needed if you need special boot parameters or if the team hasn’t imported the new kernel yet.

We use UserVoice to track feature requests and gauge user demand. There’s already a request for kernel upgrade notifications there. You can show your support by voting for it and subscribe to get notifications about implementation.

There’s also a request for allowing droplets to boot from their own kernel, which would alleviate this issue altogether. It’s something we hope to do, but it will require some major changes to our infrastructure. The good news is that the work done to bring CoreOS to DigitalOcean overlaps in some places, so we’re already laying a foundation for this to happen.

Thanks for the feedback!