You gain more control over your operating system when you know how to configure and compile your own kernel. You can selectively enable and disable features of the kernel to improve security, enhance performance, support hardware devices, or use the Linux operating system for special purposes. The Linux Virtual Server (LVS) kernel feature, for example, is required to build a Linux Enterprise Cluster. While you can use the precompiled kernel included with your Linux distribution, you'll gain confidence in your skills as a system administrator and a more in-depth knowledge of the operating system when you learn how to configure and compile your own kernel. This confidence and knowledge will help to increase system availability when problems arise after the kernel goes into production.