1. A computer program product for persistent file replacement, the computer program product comprising: a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code configured to, identify, within a virtual operating system instance associated with an earlier version of an operating system, a replacement file that corresponds to an original file of the virtual operating system instance, wherein the earlier version of the operating system is earlier than a later version of the operating system associated with a kernel that supports the virtual operating system instance, wherein the computer readable program code configured to identify the replacement file that corresponds to the original file of the virtual operating system instance comprises the computer readable program code configured to determine that the original file of the virtual operating system instance will be altered by software maintenance procedures executed within the virtual operating system instance; in response to detecting an updated original file, rename the updated original file of the virtual operating system instance; and replace a first reference to the updated original file with a second reference to the replacement file.