From Debian Clusters

Compiling the Kernel "The Debian Way"

You might be a novice or an expert at compiling kernels. You might be tried-and-true old-school "make clean && make oldconfig && make -j8&& make -j8 modules && make install && make modules_install" throwback. So why is it such a bit deal to build a kernel for your Debian cluster "the Debian Way?"

You're building a cluster. Specifically, you're building a Debian cluster. Your nodes and support servers are intended to be up, running, and accessible for "a very long time." Your building a system where a single user-level vulnerability in the Linux kernel puts hundreds of systems at risk in an instance. Building a kernel the Debian Way affords you a mechanism to easily automate kernel upgrades across all nodes of the cluster, to build packages consistently across multiple kernel versions, and to track different kernel changes in a reliable way.

Debian provides a sophisticated kernel building wrapper in make-kpkg. In addition, if you are depending upon "fringe" modules in terms of licensing, Debian also supports a sophisticated, but not covered here, module building suite of tools in the module-assistant package.

In short, building a kernel "the Debian Way" is arguably a better way to maintain consistency and a better way to support mass deployment of kernels across your entire cluster.

To get started, dive into Setting Up the Kernel Build Environment section, which describes how to prepare your Debian system to compile kernels "the Debian Way."