diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yaml b/.github/workflows/test.yaml
index f784caf..e42c711 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yaml
@@ -24,8 +24,6 @@ on:
 
 jobs:
   test:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
-
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
@@ -33,17 +31,23 @@ jobs:
           # oldest supported python and jupyterhub version
           - python-version: "3.8"
             pip-install-spec: "jupyterhub==2.3.0 tornado==5.1.0 sqlalchemy==1.*"
+            runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
           - python-version: "3.9"
             pip-install-spec: "jupyterhub==2.* sqlalchemy==1.*"
+            runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
           - python-version: "3.10"
             pip-install-spec: "jupyterhub==3.*"
+            runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
           - python-version: "3.11"
             pip-install-spec: "jupyterhub==4.*"
+            runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
 
           # latest version of python and jupyterhub (including pre-releases)
           - python-version: "3.x"
             pip-install-spec: "--pre jupyterhub"
+            runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 
+    runs-on: ${{ matrix.runs-on }}
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v3
       - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b32cbcd..d8e03d2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -78,16 +78,18 @@ The following features are currently available:
 
 ## Requirements
 
-### Systemd
+### Systemd and Linux distributions
 
-Systemd Spawner requires you to use a Linux Distro that ships with at least
-systemd v211. The security related features require systemd v228 or v227. We recommend running
-with at least systemd v228. You can check which version of systemd is running with:
+SystemdSpawner 1 is recommended to be used with systemd version 245 or higher,
+but _may_ work with systemd version 243-244 as well. Below are examples of Linux
+distributions that use systemd and has a recommended version.
 
-```bash
-$ systemctl --version | head -1
-systemd 231
-```
+- Ubuntu 20.04+
+- Debian 11+
+- Rocky 9+ / CentOS 9+
+
+The command `systemctl --version` can be used to verify that systemd is used,
+and what version is used.
 
 ### Kernel Configuration
 
@@ -115,26 +117,6 @@ are required. Systemd will automatically create dynamic users as required.
 See [this blog post](http://0pointer.net/blog/dynamic-users-with-systemd.html) for
 details.
 
-### Linux Distro compatibility
-
-#### Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
-
-We recommend running this with systemd spawner. The default kernel has all the features
-we need, and a recent enough version of systemd to give us all the features.
-
-#### Debian Jessie
-
-The systemd version that ships by default with Jessie doesn't provide all the features
-we need, and the default kernel doesn't ship with the features we need. However, if
-you [enable jessie-backports](https://backports.debian.org/Instructions/) you can
-install a new enough version of systemd and linux kernel to get it to work fine.
-
-#### Centos 7
-
-The kernel has all the features we need, but the version of systemd (219) is too old
-for the security related features of systemdspawner. However, basic spawning,
-memory & cpu limiting will work.
-
 ## Installation
 
 You can install it from PyPI with:
@@ -332,9 +314,6 @@ c.SystemdSpawner.isolate_tmp = True
 
 Defaults to false.
 
-This requires systemd version > 227. If you enable this in earlier versions, spawning will
-fail.
-
 ### `isolate_devices`
 
 Setting this to true provides a separate, private `/dev` for each user. This prevents the
@@ -348,9 +327,6 @@ c.SystemdSpawner.isolate_devices = True
 
 Defaults to false.
 
-This requires systemd version > 227. If you enable this in earlier versions, spawning will
-fail.
-
 ### `disable_user_sudo`
 
 Setting this to true prevents users from being able to use `sudo` (or any other means) to
@@ -364,9 +340,6 @@ c.SystemdSpawner.disable_user_sudo = True
 
 Defaults to false.
 
-This requires systemd version > 228. If you enable this in earlier versions, spawning will
-fail.
-
 ### `readonly_paths`
 
 List of filesystem paths that should be mounted readonly for the users' notebook server. This
@@ -384,9 +357,6 @@ appropriate values for the user being spawned.
 
 Defaults to `None` which disables this feature.
 
-This requires systemd version > 228. If you enable this in earlier versions, spawning will
-fail. It can also contain only directories (not files) until systemd version 231.
-
 ### `readwrite_paths`
 
 List of filesystem paths that should be mounted readwrite for the users' notebook server. This
@@ -403,9 +373,6 @@ appropriate values for the user being spawned.
 
 Defaults to `None` which disables this feature.
 
-This requires systemd version > 228. If you enable this in earlier versions, spawning will
-fail. It can also contain only directories (not files) until systemd version 231.
-
 ### `dynamic_users`
 
 Allocate system users dynamically for each user.
@@ -418,8 +385,6 @@ is deallocated whenever the user's server is not running.
 See http://0pointer.net/blog/dynamic-users-with-systemd.html for more
 information.
 
-Requires systemd 235.
-
 ### `slice`
 
 Run the spawned notebook in a given systemd slice. This allows aggregate configuration that
diff --git a/systemdspawner/systemd.py b/systemdspawner/systemd.py
index 4c7ed88..d114668 100644
--- a/systemdspawner/systemd.py
+++ b/systemdspawner/systemd.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 import os
 import re
 import shlex
+import subprocess
 import warnings
 
 # light validation of environment variable keys
@@ -198,3 +199,20 @@ async def reset_service(unit_name):
     """
     proc = await asyncio.create_subprocess_exec("systemctl", "reset-failed", unit_name)
     await proc.wait()
+
+
+def get_systemd_version():
+    """
+    Returns systemd's major version, or None if failing to do so.
+    """
+    try:
+        version_response = subprocess.check_output(["systemctl", "--version"])
+        # Example response from Ubuntu 22.04:
+        #
+        # systemd 249 (249.11-0ubuntu3.9)
+        # +PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +APPARMOR +IMA +SMACK +SECCOMP +GCRYPT +GNUTLS +OPENSSL +ACL +BLKID +CURL +ELFUTILS +FIDO2 +IDN2 -IDN +IPTC +KMOD +LIBCRYPTSETUP +LIBFDISK +PCRE2 -PWQUALITY -P11KIT -QRENCODE +BZIP2 +LZ4 +XZ +ZLIB +ZSTD -XKBCOMMON +UTMP +SYSVINIT default-hierarchy=unified
+        #
+        version = int(float(version_response.split()[1]))
+        return version
+    except:
+        return None
diff --git a/systemdspawner/systemdspawner.py b/systemdspawner/systemdspawner.py
index 4c799f7..cc2850d 100644
--- a/systemdspawner/systemdspawner.py
+++ b/systemdspawner/systemdspawner.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import asyncio
 import os
 import pwd
+import sys
 
 from jupyterhub.spawner import Spawner
 from jupyterhub.utils import random_port
@@ -8,6 +9,9 @@
 
 from systemdspawner import systemd
 
+SYSTEMD_REQUIRED_VERSION = 243
+SYSTEMD_LOWEST_RECOMMENDED_VERSION = 245
+
 
 class SystemdSpawner(Spawner):
     user_workingdir = Unicode(
@@ -60,8 +64,6 @@ class SystemdSpawner(Spawner):
         """,
     ).tag(config=True)
 
-    # FIXME: Do not allow enabling this for systemd versions < 227,
-    # since that is when it was introduced.
     isolate_tmp = Bool(
         False,
         help="""
@@ -131,8 +133,6 @@ class SystemdSpawner(Spawner):
 
         See http://0pointer.net/blog/dynamic-users-with-systemd.html for more
         information.
-
-        Requires systemd 235.
         """,
     ).tag(config=True)
 
@@ -155,6 +155,21 @@ def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
             "user:%s Initialized spawner with unit %s", self.user.name, self.unit_name
         )
 
+        systemd_version = systemd.get_systemd_version()
+        if systemd_version is None:
+            self.log.warning(
+                "Failed to parse systemd version from 'systemctl --version'"
+            )
+        elif systemd_version < SYSTEMD_REQUIRED_VERSION:
+            self.log.critical(
+                f"systemd version {SYSTEMD_REQUIRED_VERSION} or higher is required, version {systemd_version} is used"
+            )
+            sys.exit(1)
+        elif systemd_version < SYSTEMD_LOWEST_RECOMMENDED_VERSION:
+            self.log.warning(
+                f"systemd version {SYSTEMD_LOWEST_RECOMMENDED_VERSION} or higher is recommended, version {systemd_version} is used"
+            )
+
     def _expand_user_vars(self, string):
         """
         Expand user related variables in a given string
diff --git a/tests/test_systemd.py b/tests/test_systemd.py
index e9a8a60..c06c296 100644
--- a/tests/test_systemd.py
+++ b/tests/test_systemd.py
@@ -11,6 +11,17 @@
 from systemdspawner import systemd
 
 
+def test_get_systemd_version():
+    """
+    Test getting systemd version as an integer, where the assumption for the
+    tests are that systemd is actually running at all.
+    """
+    systemd_version = systemd.get_systemd_version()
+    assert isinstance(
+        systemd_version, int
+    ), "Either systemd wasn't running, or we failed to parse the version into an integer!"
+
+
 async def test_simple_start():
     unit_name = "systemdspawner-unittest-" + str(time.time())
     await systemd.start_transient_service(