The dashboard is simple, power on/ power off the server and info about the ip, root password (which you should disable anyway) and reimage. You can choose betw

The dashboard is simple, power on/ power off the server and info about the ip, root password (which you should disable anyway) and reimage. You can choose between Debian, Ubuntu and CentOS mostly that I remember. No custom kernels that I know for now if by that you mean a custom distro image. I guess you could download or compile a kernel from sources, install it and reboot... if you screw up just reimage... About managing your server, you have ssh access so, total freedom and you can find guides/tutorials everywhere on the internet.