[ubuntu-cloud] EC2, "2.6.32-21-server" kernel instead of "2.6.32-305-ec2"?

[Jack Bates]

On Tue, 2010-08-17 at 09:06 -0400, Scott Moser wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Aug 2010, Jack Bates wrote:
> > When I run the EC2 image "ami-fd4aa494", it boots kernel
> > "2.6.32-305-ec2",
> >
> > $ uname -r
> > 2.6.32-305-ec2
> > $
> >
> > However kernel "2.6.32-21-server" is also installed,
> >
> > $ ls /boot/vmlinuz-*
> > /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-server  /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-305-ec2
> > $
> >
> > How do I boot from this other kernel instead?
> 
> In 10.04, the -server kernel that is also installed is not usable on EC2.
> The kernel is present there to aid in moving to UEC if you so desired.
> UEC uses kvm and full virtualization rather than xen/paravirt.
> 
> on 10.04 and EC2, you could safely remove that kernel if you wanted.
> 
> On 10.10 (maverick/the current development release), you will both be able
> to boot the -virtual kernel, and will by default.  Maverick images use the
> pv-grub loader recently released by amazon, and use a pv-ops kernel, so
> one kernel can run on xen or on kvm (or actually "bare metal").
> 
> We've still got some work to get there, but I'm really happy with the
> prospect of using a single kernel in our images, and using a pv-grub to
> allow 'apt-get upgrade' to install a new kernel and a reboot into it.

Much thanks for this info Scott

I suspect this is asking too much, but is it possible to load the KVM
kernel module on EC2? - is it possible to use EC2 as a KVM *host*?

/proc/cpuinfo on EC2 reports the "vmx" extension

We're about to purchase some beefy hardware to build and test KVM
virtual appliances for the "Archivematica" project,
http://archivematica.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

We'd only occasionally need these large resources, so I'd prefer to use
e.g. EC2 vs. owning and maintaining our own expensive hardware

Is it possible to test KVM virtual appliances without owning our own
hardware? - is it possible on EC2, or on some other cloud service?