Compiling Linux Kernel 3.16.1 for CentOS 7.0 on Haswell Server

Background: I would like to upgrade the existing kernel for CentOS 7.0 (3.10.0-123.6.3.el7.x86_64) to 3.16.1 (latest kernel from kernel.org - not available in repo yet).


Download the latest kernel from www.kernel.org into /usr/src/kernels. Untar and change into the kernel directory (in this case is linux-3.16.1).

Install the necessary packages:
$ yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
$ yum install ncurses ncurses-devel

Do a proper cleanup:
$ make mrproper

Copy current kernel config (in /boot) to .config (in working dir) as a base to use.
Note that 'make mrproper' deletes .config
$ cp /boot/config-3.10.0-123.el7.x86_64 .config

Edit the configuration further if needed:
$ make menuconfig

To adjust compiling to the number of your CPU cores (for faster compilation time):
$ export CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=`getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN`

Compile and build the rpms
$ make rpm

Install the kernel
$ rpm -ivh /root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/kernel-2.6.32.27-1.x86_64.rpm


This should set up the initrd and grub settings. If not, manually do these:
$ mkinitrd /boot/initrd-3.16.1.img 3.16.1
$ grubby --add-kernel=/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.1  --initrd=/boot/initramfs-3.16.1.img --title="CentOS Linux 7.0 3.16.1" --make-default --copy-default