SUMMARY:

System Engineer with 18+ years of IT experience and certified in Citrix technologies. Remote Opportunities Preferred.

GOAL:

Seeking a role with continued exposure to design, implement and support virtual/cloud environments as well as advance my scripting (Powershell / PowerCLI), web development skill sets and gain more exposure to cloud and DevOps technologies.

EXPERTISE IN:

Citrix | VMware | VDI | PowerCLI | Powershell | Active Directory | Cloud | DevOps | AWS | LinkedIn | Twitter | GitHub | Medium | CodePen

WORK HISTORY:

Confidential

System Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Member of the Cloud Operations team responsible for planning, deploying and maintaining server (500+) and desktop (200+) infrastructure (Windows/Linux) hosted on AWS and/or various Cloud Service Providers
• Manage a Citrix 7.13 environment hosted on HP Simplivity hyper converged platform for 200+ VDI (persistent), published and PVS desktops and managed via vSphere 6.x with Cisco UCS C240 blade servers for ESXi hosts. Other managed Citrix components include: Storefront 3.9, PVS 7.13, Netscaler 11.1
• Deploy and manage Amazon Web Services (AWS) to include server builds with EC2, DNS configuration with Route53, Virtual Private Cloud (VPCs) and WorkSpaces desktop services
• Manage Ansible Tower on Redhat 7 to deploy and configure servers as well as manage AWS services to include but limited to VPCs and Route53
• Projects:
• AWS Datacenter Migration - Currently migrating 500 server workloads from our current Cloud Provider into AWS
• AWS Virtual Desktop Implementation - Standing up 200 AWS WorkSpaces CDI for local/remote users and India counterparts
• AD/DNS Cleanup - Leverage Powershell to create reports that identify AD objects and DNS entries for cleanup
• Citrix 7.13 - Stand-up and configure a multiuser application and VDI environment for a geographically dispersed user base
• Migrate Atlassian server workloads from current cloud provider to AWS. These include: JIRA, Confluence, Stash, BitBucket, etc.
• Deployed NetApp On Command Cloud Manager and NAS
• Stood up Citrix XenDesktop 7.x PVS desktop targets, shared desktops and published apps for 200+ end-users and developers in US based and India locations
• Deployed VDI solution via AWS with WorkSpaces, WAM and AppStrem 2.0 POC

Confidential, Atlanta, GA

Senior System Administrator

Responsibilities:

• Implement and administered the enterprise virtualization environment (VMware View 5.3 / Citrix XenApp 6.5), including troubleshooting, performance monitoring and optimization, capacity and continuity planning in a PCI compliant environment.
• Citrix XenApp 6.5 functions include but are not limited to: Publishing applications/desktops, session host server maintenance, load evaluator configuration, optimize XenApp infrastructure, maintain up-to-date patch levels, administer Netscaler Gateway
• Designed, implemented and administered VMware ESXi 5/View Horizon 5.3 and 7.0 functions include but are not limited to: host remediation, restructure aging server environment, provide infrastructure recommendations to management, coordinate vendor engagements for new implementations
• 800 VDI hosted on HP DL Series Gen 8 and 9 servers for off-site call center users
• Trained help desk personnel on basic VDI administration
• Deployed and managed Sophos Antivirus Enterprise Console
• Powershell / PowerCLI tool user making effective use of pre-existing community scripts and proficient with basic "one-liners" to manage an enterprise environment
• Create audit and health check reports to conduct cleanup and maintenance of: DNS, Active Directory, Group Policy Objects, vSphere/vCenter and Symantec Backup Exec 2012 / NetBackup
• Manage Active Directory and vSphere objects using Windows PowerShell and PowerCLI cmdlets
• Identify and isolate areas of potential security vulnerabilities with Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 (Firewall Policy, Web Access Policy, Logs & Reports)
• Manage and monitor backup and restore jobs with Symantec Backup Exec 2012
• Analyze existing operations and make recommendations for the improvement and development of the relevant IT systems
• Facilitate knowledge sharing by creating and maintaining detailed, comprehensive documentation and diagrams
• Group policy and active directory management
• Monitoring tools: VMTurbo (Turbonomics), Solarwinds Orion, vCenter Operations Manager (vCOPs)
• Projects:
• AD / GPO / DNS Cleanup vCenter / ESXi 5.5 Migration
• VDI Health Check Assessment
• Sophos Endpoint Protection / Secure Web Gateway
• VMware vShield

Confidential, Atlanta, GA

Citrix Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Participates in design, development and implementation of Citrix systems engineering activities, to include systems/application configurations, network and data center management.
• Current Citrix technologies used include: XenApp 6.5, XenDesktop 5.6 and PVS 6.1
• Assists in establishment of SLAs and change management processes.
• Provides technical knowledge and capabilities to advise on hardware and software purchases.
• Directly supports and interfaces with IT team peers such as Tier 1 Support, Developer and Software Engineer Support, Information Security and other internal teams and external vendors.
• Conducts ongoing security risk assessments including the monitoring, investigation, and reporting and remediating of audit, security and access violations.
• Proactively maintains all infrastructure technologies on supported releases, including upgrading and patching as needed to ensure SLA’s are consistently achieved
• Perform periodic performance reporting to support capacity planning. Perform ongoing performance tuning, hardware upgrades, and resource optimization as required.
• Perform root cause analysis on all reported discrepancies; recommend remediation and fix where possible.
• Communicate with all appropriate parties on the resolution/escalation of issues.
• Participate in an on-call rotation to support all production environments and monthly downtime maintenance.

Confidential, Tampa, FL

Citrix Administrator

Responsibilities:

• Function as third-tier support consultant for Citrix infrastructure, with escalation to vendor for software issue resolution.
• Provide operational support for Citrix XenApp 6.5, Provisioning Server 6.1, XenDesktop 5.6 and VMware vSphere/ESXi 5 on 2 HP c7000 Blade Chassis housing 10 BL685c G7 servers
• VMware ESXi 5 environment consists of: 15TB of storage, 10 hosts and 75 servers
• Perform daily system monitoring, performance tuning and planned system maintenance to include hardware, virtual systems, published applications and target devices for multi-user environment
• This includes: 40 provisioned virtual XenApp Session Hosts and approximately 800 provisioned virtual Windows 7 target devices
• Manage and troubleshoot Citrix virtualization and access infrastructure
• This includes: IMA Data Store, Zone Data Collector / Citrix XML broker, Citrix License Server, Configuration Logging database and Web Interface 5.4
• Manage Remote Desktop Services (RDS) via Session Host Configuration Wizard and Group Policy
• Manage a monthly release cycle for vDisk OS and patching updates for session hosts, PVS servers and client devices.
• Follow customer’s change control guidelines; provide daily/weekly activity reports, maintain documentation and drawings in Microsoft Visio.
• Manage Active Directory (Users and Computers) and Group Policy to optimize and secure the Citrix client/server environment to include: Account and Local Policies, ADMX Templates (Citrix/Office 2010), Scheduled Tasks, Folder Redirection
• Monitoring tools to view and analyze performance data consisted of: Foglight for Virtualization, Enterprise Edition 6.8, System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 (Management Pack for Citrix Presentation Server) and Windows Performance Monitor
• Mentor help desk and desktop personnel on addressing, troubleshooting and resolving lower tiered technical issues while developing an enterprise knowledge base for historical reference
• Work as part of a system engineering team, providing support outside of the virtual desktop environment when needed by the team.
• Accomplishments:
• Transitioned 1500 users from Presentation Server 4.5 to XenApp 6.5

Confidential, Alpharetta, GA

Citrix/VDI Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Manage a Citrix XenDesktop VDI infrastructure with VMware ESXi 5 as the hosting platform of 1 data center, 4 clusters, 35+ hosts and 1500 VMs consisting of both pooled and dedicated virtual machines.
• XenApp 5.0 - farm management of 160+ servers via Citrix Management Console (v3) to includes tasks such as application publishing and profile management for ~3500 concurrent users companywide across 3 sites (Alpharetta, GA, Deerfield, FL and Chicago, IL)
• Provide daily support of tier 3 escalated incidents
• Environment planned to scale XenDesktop 5.5 to support ~2500 concurrent users
• Assisted in team effort of a 90% ticket queue reduction of 300 open issues down to 30 within a 6 week time frame

Confidential, Atlanta, GA

Virtualization Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Implement and manage virtual infrastructure of 2 datacenters with 3 clusters consisting of 15+ ESXi hosts and 60+ virtual servers in a 98% virtualized environment
• VMware - manage virtual environment with the following features: vSphere, HA / DRS, vMotion, Storage vMotion, Fault Tolerance, Host Profiles, Update Manager, Distributed Switches, Multipathing, Resource pools, vApps,
• CommVault v8 - Enterprise level system backup and recovery; coordinate DR test plans
• Symantec SEPM v12.1 - manage client and server antivirus functions and security policies from AV management console; preparing for upgrade to SEPM 12.1.2
• GPO - administer and troubleshoot Group Policy Objects used for security, application and hardware settings
• Active Directory - manage security groups and maintain a clean directory structure
• Solarwinds Orion and IPAM - Infrastructure management and monitoring
• Check Point Endpoint Security Manager - Manage and upgrade to version E80.40
• Tivoli / BigFix 8.2 - enterprise wide workstation and server patch management
• Windows Deployment Services - maintain and deploy enterprise-wide images
• Accomplishments:
• Assisted with architecting the virtual infrastructure for Trusted Internet Connection initiative
• Checkpoint Endpoint Security Manager client / server upgrade from E80.30 to E80.40

Confidential, Norcross, GA

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Implement and manage virtual desktop infrastructure of 40+ ESXi hosts and 500+ virtual machines of which 200+ were virtual servers
• Support a non-technical staff of 900+ sales, 200+ customer service and 360+ finance, marketing and business development professionals
• Support and maintained 450+ Dell workstations, 300+ Dell laptops and 50+ Apple devices including iPads, Mac Book Pro and Mac Book Air
• Install, deploy, QA, and administer Windows Server 2008 R2 for both VMware and Citrix environments
• Provide technical input and assist in the maintenance of departmental documentation relating to the environment.
• Support Active Directory environment to include GPO administration and XenDesktop 5 HDX user / machine policy
• Support and monitor SAN environment consisting of Dell Compellent SAN Series 40 (primary) and HP 3PAR Fiber SAN’s (decommissioned)
• Build and maintain base images for standard users and developers that are deployed from templates to create servers/workstations
• Participate in Change Management processes and planning
• Accomplishments:
• Implemented HP Systems Insight Manager server to monitor HP server hardware used as ESXi hosts throughout the Enterprise
• V2V migration of 40+ servers / workstations from Microsoft Hyper-V to VMware ESXi 4.1 environment
• P2V migration of 40+ servers / workstations to VMware ESX4.1 environment using Standalone Converter
• Upgraded XenDesktop hosted VDI environment from 5.1 to 5.5 and decommissioned XenDesktop 4
• Upgraded VDI hosting platform from ESXi 4.1 to 5 and installed HP DL380 G7 / Gen8 servers as the hypervisors

Confidential, Marietta, GA

Sr. VDI Administrator

Responsibilities:

• Maintain a multi-tiered VMware infrastructure for a robust, high-availability, geographically distributed web based, client based interface and thin-client network involving multiple datacenters and widely dispersed end-users
• Administer 4 VDI clusters, 32 ESXi 4.1 hosts and 1700 VMs (scaling to 6,750 VMs across 3 datacenters)
• Build application packages with ThinApp for deployment to the virtual desktop environment and ensure that said applications conform where necessary to the Confidential standard desktop configuration
• Perform installation and configuration of hardware and software as it relates to VDI infrastructure
• Implement best practices for the desktop virtualization environment

Confidential, Atlanta, GA

Sr. System Administrator

Responsibilities:

• Provide and manage the infrastructure in both private and multi-tenant environments, while the customer manages desktops
• Installed and configured Desktone product to provide Desktop as a Service (DaaS) to operate a multi-customer virtual desktop infrastructure
• Support customers in three environment models to include: Shared (shared infrastructure at an Confidential site), Dedicated/ Confidential site (dedicated infrastructure at an Confidential site), Dedicated/Customer site (dedicated infrastructure appliance located at customer site)
• Build, patch and maintain Linux based ESX Hosts to support a Virtual Infrastructure of servers, desktops, and storage to support public and private cloud computing for small\medium sized businesses utilizing VMware 4.1 and ESXi software.
• Build and Manage Virtual Desktop Machines utilizing VMware View and other software desktop broker applications.
• Support a Tier 2 / 3 Help Desk to assist customers with management of virtual desktop infrastructures hosted within the cloud and other services.
• Provide Active Directory administration for customers within the virtual Infrastructure (Build Accounts, Administer Security groups etc...).
• Develop standard operating procedures and checklists for deployment of virtual environments.

Confidential, Atlanta, GA

Sr. System Administrator

Responsibilities:

• Manage day-to-day operation of computer network including hardware / software support, training and special projects; plans and implements data connectivity for local area network and wide area network systems.

Confidential, Smyrna, GA

LAN Admin

Responsibilities:

• Serve as an information technology specialist within the DCMA Atlanta hub / sector, responsible for network administration and support of automated information technology activities and related telecommunications requirements

Confidential, Arlington, VA

Sr. System Support Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Sr. Systems Analyst providing direct intermediate to advanced technical support for cabinet level VIPs to include Confidential, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Senior Executive Service (SES), Senior Military Assistants and their front office staff (200+ users/500+ systems)

Confidential, Arlington, VA

System Administrator

Responsibilities:

• Team Lead administrative responsibilities consisted of but not limited to: supervising the activities of 6 team members, conduct employee annual evaluations, approving timesheets and expense reports, submitting projected leave statements (quarterly), review individual trouble ticket queues, coordinate corporate headquarters meetings at our off-site location, submit outstanding individuals for monetary bonuses, review resumes, recruit new team members, maintain morale and resolve conflicts pertaining to personnel issues
• Accomplishments:
• Member of a team that completed an XP rollout of approximately 1200 PC’s within one month
• Resolved 1055+ trouble tickets since becoming a member of the Desktop Team on December 27, 2005
• Performed several mission critical software installs, upgrades, and resolution of Urgent/High priority trouble tickets (337+) which account for 32% of my completed tickets
• Participate in ongoing IT Service Center Project aimed at reducing trouble ticket queues and cross training Helpdesk personnel