I'm considering to rent a virtual server (for me personally). The product I'm currently looking at offers IMO fair pricing, very good hardware etc. The only problem is, that I won't be able to do an upgrade to a newer kernel than 2.6.9 (running Debian Etch). Also, I can't install my own kernel modules. (The server runs with Virtuozzo, so as far as I understand it, it just does some chroot instead of a real virtualization (?))
I want to run GlassFish, Postgres, Subversion, Trac and maybe some other things on it. It will also have to employ a firewall, and provide OpenSSL for https. Ideally, it would also be able to do AIO (asynchronous IO), which could speed up some server I/O.
Should I expect problems with that old kernel version, in conjunction with the software I want to install (I'd like to use current versions of the software)? One thing I already found out, is that you can't do everything with iptables, since some kernel modules are missing/things are not build into the kernel. GlassFish v3 appears to run fine at first glance.
I was able to test the server for a few hours. Installing my whole setup wasn't feasible in that time, but what I can say is, that it's amazingly fast for an entry-level vserver, especially hard disk and network performance (averaging at ca. 400MBit/s). So if the kernel won't be a problem, I'd really like to take it.
Thanks, Chris
PS Exact kernel version: 2.6.9-023stab051.3-smp
Edit:
Can I expect, that important security patches are backported to that kernel version?
Decided to take a different product from a different site. The machine's network connection is a bit slower, and it costs 50% more, but a newer kernel and also a more open information policy (including detailed FAQs and a forum) give me a much better feeling.