SUMMARY:

I strive to deliver superior support in every situation, from a complete datacenter outage to a single virtual server down.

EMPLOYMENT:

Confidential, Houston, TX

VMware Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Work with the BMC Remedy ticketing system to handle problems, changes and incidents that were assigned to me for management of the Confidential VMware Infrastructure.
• Utilized a follow - the-sun support model, and handed off support duties to other teams across the world.
• Utilize SCCM and SCOM, as well as vCenter and other performance measurement tools to track down and eliminate problems in the virtual environment.
• Learned to work within the constraints of extremely tight Confidential security practices.
• Maintained a high level of professionalism at all times.
• Suggested ways that efficiency and automation could be put to better use, while still maintaining strict security compliance.

Confidential, Seattle, WA

Virtualization Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Supported 15+ large VMWare cluster environments (100’s of hosts, 5000+ VM’s) using HP Blade Servers and a mix of VMWare 5.0 and 5.5 and either HP or EMC SAN backend, across two remote datacenters (Nevada and North Carolina).
• Primary and back-up on-call for Disney SE Teams including ESPN, ABC, Disney Parks and Resorts Online and other internal and administrative initiatives.
• Directly supported server builds and troubleshooting for the Oscars ceremonies online activities, March Madness and stress testing troubleshooting for a new roll-out Parks and Resorts software.
• Use of CA ServiceDesk for changes, requests and incident management. Trained on Service Now.
• Build of Microsoft Clusters including new Server 2012 AlwaysON models.
• Configuration of switch ports to change VLAN’s, trunking, port channels, speed, etc… for new physical server deploys and new VMWare host deploys.
• Used Orion, vCOPS, vCenter and OS tools for troubleshooting problems in the infrastructure.
• Volunteered for the tough tickets that nobody wanted to work.

Confidential, Kotzebue, AK

VMWare Administrator

Responsibilities:

• Maintained and upgraded a VMWare 5.5 Infrastructure, including Hosts, VM's and backend SAN.
• Deployed new Windows 2008 and 2012 Windows hosts and configured for domain connectivity.
• Maintained and upgraded VMWare View 5.3 deployment of over 500 workstations under lean host conditions.
• Built new Windows 7 image hospital and villages currently use for thin and zero clients.
• Built new golden images for View and Thinapped apps to use in those deployments.
• Carved out new space from the SAN and presented to VMWare hosts.
• Recommended and implemented network changes.
• Upgraded firmware and BIOS on Dell hosts that are in production.
• Upgraded Exchange 2010 server to dual Exchange 2013 servers.

Confidential, Houston, TX

VMWare vCloud Solutions Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Worked closely with Confidential project stakeholders to identify and understand their core objectives/business requirements.
• Developed the virtualization automation strategy that facilitated both the rapid auto-provisioning/ de-provisioning of systems and that would complement Confidential ?s ongoing private cloud initiative.
• Built pre-production vCloud Director lab used to validate vCloud Automation Center (vCAC) as the automation solution
• Production design, install, and configuration of vCloud Automation Center 5.2.
• Responsible for the creation of vApps composed of new and pre-existing Lab Manager virtual machines that severed as the initial vApp building blocks for template creation.
• Day-to day administration of the following systems/ services:
• VMware vCloud Director (vCD)
• VMware vCloud Automation Center (vCAC)

Confidential, San Antonio, TX

Virtualization Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Augmented existing internal support staff for the Rackspace private VMWare cloud, during a difficult transition period where Rackspace was automating private cloud deployment and support methods changed weekly.
• Learned the “Fanatical Support” system and how Rackspace uses the Net Promoter Score metrics to gauge overall company health, in the pursuit of being the “Best Service Company In The World”
• Gave expert consultation to customers during support calls related to performance issues, downtime, and upgrades to existing equipment.
• Participated in first, second and third shifts and at least one Saturday or Sunday each week.
• Provided guidance for support and general company policy to new Rackspace employees.

Confidential, Houston, TX

Sr. Systems Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Augmented existing support staff and learned how to support VMWare vCloud Director product line including vShield Edge virtual appliances and the customer vCloud self-service portal.
• Performed VM migrations to higher performing SAN volumes. Supported VM’s in tiered SAN storage environments.
• Performed complex troubleshooting in the cloud environment using SAN monitoring tools, Cacti, vCenter performance metrics, VMWare host metrics and operating systems tools like perfmon, process monitor and built-in OS monitoring tools.
• Worked with the backup and DR administrator to make sure new deployments were added to the Veeam backup schedule or SAN snapshot schedule, and existing deployments were being backed up without any failures. Worked with customer to test DR solutions, RTO’s and RPO’s and checked server backup logs for any anomalies and fixed any problems.
• Documented and recommended ASA firewall rules for new customer deployments.
• Monitored backups for completion and assisted in customer DR efforts.
• Answered incoming support requests from high value customers and provided exceptional support under stressful, time sensitive problem resolution deadlines.

Confidential, Houston, TX

Sr. Systems Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Worked on a small team responsible for the day to day troubleshooting, upgrading, patching and metrics reporting for the managed hosting accounts on VMware, Windows 2003 and 2008 Server, NetApp SAN’s, and direct attached storage.
• Administered and maintained R1 Soft CDP software for data protection utilizing disk to disk backups and host agents. Restored files and directories at customer request. Ran reports daily to check that no backups had failed and report any failures to management while working to fix the problem. Notified the customer and then performed a one-time backup to makeup for the missed overnight backup.
• Responsible for troubleshooting and bringing to resolution, complex problems between VMWare hosts, SAN storage and the operating systems where there was little to no documentation, direction or vendor support.
• Worked with multiple levels of the sales team to sell upgrades to existing installations, architect new solutions for new and existing customers, and sat in on sales team meetings with the customer to answer any technical questions and defend the solution presented while working within the customers budget constraints.

Confidential, Houston, TX

Sr. Systems Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Identified problems in the customers VMWare infrastructure at the EMC SAN, network, VMWare host and virtual machine level with a mix of ESX 3.x and 4.x hosts.
• Recommended and implemented changes that brought redundancy, performance improvements and standards to the customers VMWare infrastructure environment.
• Assisted in identifying performance problems with the EMC SAN infrastructure and specifically with certain VM’s running on older 7200rpm SATA disks where the VM could benefit from running on high performance FC disks or 15k rpm SAS disks.
• Installed Vizioncore vFoglight so the customer had better visibility and overview of the health of the VMWare infrastructure.
• Built Windows 2008 VMWare templates for rapid deployment into the VMWare environment.

Confidential, Houston, TX

Systems Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Build, deploy and maintain a VMWare 3.x and 4.x pod infrastructure in Level 3, Telx and Coresite datacenters In the USA and Europe.
• Created and maintained a VMWare lab environment for proof of concept and training purposes.
• Assisted in deployment and support of the VMWare View VDI infrastructure. Rolled out View desktops to the sales team for consistency of apps, look and feel, and to ease the desktop support role. Added new accounts and templates to the VMWare View broker server.
• Responsible for all problem resolution for hundreds of customers, all VMWare hosts and virtual servers to include multiple Linux distributions, Windows 2003 and 2008 Server guests, Dell Equallogic SAN performance problems and Cisco routing and switching problems.
• Used VMWare vmotion, storage vmotion, HA and DRS to work around problems, provide for Dell Equallogic SAN and server firmware updates and VMWare host patching while maintaining 100% uptime.
• Used products from Veeam and Acronis for disk to disk backups of VM’s, hot snapshots and periodic DR and file recovery testing on a quarterly basis. Monitored backups for completeness and corrected any problems where backups and/or snapshots were failing.
• Responsible for modifying, maintaining and troubleshooting configurations on Cisco switches, routers and firewalls utilizing the command line.
• Maintained, added and helped troubleshoot firewall rules to Cisco ASA and PIX hardware.
• Maintained ArcServe tape backups, ArcServe server and client host agents. Created and maintained backup schedules, rotated tapes off site and performed DR and file restorations for customers.
• Converted the physical web servers in the datacenter to virtual machines and imported them into the virtual infrastructure using VMWare Converter. Responsible for all planning and execution of IP address movement, customer notification and troubleshooting.
• Maintained our datacenter footprint, including documenting and improving our presence, process and controls.
• Used proof of concept methods in the lab to deploy and maintain the VMWare SAN infrastructure with performance, redundancy and disaster recovery as the methodology.
• Created new SAN volumes, added additional SAN hardware for capacity and load balancing and added the new volumes to the VMWare infrastructure and then added the additional capacity to customer VM’s.
• Traveled globally to datacenters for installation and upgrade activities related to the VMWare infrastructure.
• Added, deleted and maintained: Shared email accounts, DNS servers and DNS entries on FreeBSD, SPAM filtering initiatives, user accounts for access to portals and customer facing Cacti accounts for bandwidth monitoring,
• Answered incoming customer calls and emails, responded to ticket queues and helped build a knowledgebase of common problems and resolutions for use by junior team members.

Confidential, Houston, TX

Contract Server Specialist

Responsibilities:

• Rapidly build out IBM Server hardware in preparation for VMWare ESX 2.5 Server and Windows 2003 Enterprise server installations.
• Resolve all IBM Server hardware issues during the build and deployment phase.
• Created server build documentation for the server administration team.
• Facilitated communication between Centerpoint and IBM Support Services for warranty replacement hardware that was DOA.
• Build, deploy, cable, populate and document, to exact specifications, IBM datacenter racks that were used by the customer. This included proper cable arm management installation and cable pre-tensioning to allow for hot-swap PCI slots to be used as intended.
• Documented and trained Centerpoint operations personnel on procedures for updating hardware drivers, firmware and BIOS on all IBM hardware.
• Responsible for third level support to Centerpoint for any IBM hardware issues in the datacenter.

Confidential, Miami, FL

Systems Administrator

Responsibilities:

• Used VMWare Workstation to test stability of application and OS patches before rolling out to production servers.
• Successfully handled critical severity one problems on remote (out of state) servers via conference calls, brought in necessary teams on the call while documenting each step that was performed to help build a knowledgebase.
• Installed CA ArcServe for enterprise backups, loaded backup agents on the servers and established a backup and tape rotation schedule based on a one month retention time. Made sure tapes were stored in a secure, weatherproof case for pickup and rotation to off-site storage.
• Presented and expedited solutions to severity one problems that affected SLA’s.
• Served as on-call support for Confidential, including a fifteen minute or less response time twenty-four hours a day for a seven day rotations.
• Turned project functional specifications into server hardware requirements.
• Responded to written and telephone requests for problem resolution and root cause analysis follow-up.
• Researched and recommended server hardware configurations and software tools to automate the deployment of critical Microsoft security patches.
• Represented Confidential during early morning daily conference calls to discuss any severity one or severity two problems, with technical teams and executive teams present on the calls.
• Prepared and presented new technology briefings at team meetings.
• Organized and managed change controls by applying experience in change and problem management.