Senior Systems Engineer
Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart University
Total years of experience :15 years, 6 Months
Responsibilities and Achievements:
- Deployment, administration and maintenance of Linux (Red Hat, Oracle Linux, Ubuntu) based infrastructure that hosts the University's core online applications and services, running in various highly available, load balanced and scalable clusters.
- Responsible for designing, testing and maintaining the backup infrastructure.
- Took lead on several projects, including: centralized logging, monitoring & reporting server, web application performance and stress testing framework, Enterprise backup and DR design, Extending services to Amazon AWS cloud.
- Designed a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery design for the whole infrastructure with optimal RTO and RPO.
- Designed and implemented Nagios/Icinga2 based host, services and application monitoring.
- Developed custom monitoring scripts to monitor various aspects of the infrastructure including application performance, cluster statistics and backup operations.
- Defined installation policies for Linux servers to reduce variations in systems
- Implemented Linux standards and enhancements across the infrastructure.
- Automated deployment and management tasks through scripting and custom tools.
- Performed performance analysis and tuning of core web applications and systems.
- Received 3 performance and initiative rewards from the Assistant Chancellor, recognizing outstanding performance, initiatives and innovation, in just one year of joining.
Responsibilities:
- Responsible for designing, installing, securing and maintaining more than 30 Linux based mission critical servers and infrastructures for numerous clients spread across UAE.
- Plan software and hardware upgrades. Configure and schedule backups and disaster recovery strategies. Maintain system security from internal and external attacks using OS level software configuration and external hardware firewall integration.
- Develop scripts to automate system administration tasks. Integrate application and services with the monitoring system (nagios) for proactive alerts to failures and attacks.
- Respond(24/7) to support calls directly from clients and alerts from monitoring system. Debug and troubleshoot production issues on live environment, provide remote and on-site support.
- Assist pre-sales in the provisioning of demonstrations and architectural design of client proposals.
Key Projects:
-> Etisalat - Linux infrastructure for an IVR setup
- 70 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 servers (35 HP DL380s on each of two geographically redundant sites) for a Genesys IVR implementation with 14 clustered Apache Tomcat servers. The IVR service is currently handling subscription services for all Etisalat customers in UAE.
-> Axiom - E-Mail and Web server infrastructure
- Two email server cluster serving 4000 users for India and UAE operations, running Postfix, Cyrus, OpenLDAP, Apache and MySQL. Authenticated against a company managed Active Directory server, integrated and protected with two barracuda spam firewall in active cluster.
- Rescued, secured and migrated the compromised, infected and defaced public facing website (www.axiomtelecom.com). Currently responsible for its security, maintenance and smooth operation.
-> Dubai Airport Terminal 3 - Network infrastructure servers
- Mission critical RHEL5 based active/passive DHCP & DNS cluster (8000+ clients in 485 VLANs).
- Developed scripts to automate configuration, provided training to the airport staff to maintain the setup.
-> Gulf Health Care - Zimbra based Email Cluster
- Implemented RHEL6 based Zimbra Email Collaboration Suite active/passive cluster using Redhat Cluster Suite on HP BL460c G7 blades and HP FC SAN.
- Configured email archiving, on-site and off-site backups on Buffalo TS7120R NAS.
-> Gulf Medical University - Redhat Cluster for Oracle E-Business suite
- Implemented RHEL6 based high availability application cluster using Redhat Cluster Suite for Oracle E-Business suite along with RHEL6 for BI and development and staging servers.
-> SKA International - Email and Web server infrastructure
- Deployed Zimbra based email server and Apache/PHP/Joomla based webserver on RHEL6.
- Configured LVM snapshot based nightly backups for email and web services.
-> United Bank Limited (UBL) - Redhat/Oracle Performance tuning and server Migration
- Performed OS, Filesystem and DB level performance tuning on the bank's core DB (Oracle 9i) server.
- Prepared and tested the backup clone for the production DB server on a VM (vmware).
-> Modern Freight Control (MFC) - Web Caching and Proxy server
- Deployed two RHEL6 based proxy (squid) and DHCP servers with software firewall, MAC based authentication and MAC based web and DHCP ACL.
-> Miscellaneous
- Saleh Bin Lahej Group (Chilis) - Email server
- SFC Group (Southern Fried Chicken) - Email server
- RTA (Road and Transport Authority) - Linux infrastructure for GPS tracking application
- Diyafah High School - Web Caching and Proxy server
- Dubai Muncipality - Redundant Backup servers for Fog Monitoring System
- LandMark Group - OCFS2 configuration for Oracle Cluster
Responsibilities:
- Administration of Linux & UNIX based corporate Email, Web, DNS, Proxy, FTP servers which serve more than 2000 users of Hashoo Group.
- Administration of Windows Server 2003 based IIS server hosting ASP based corporate websites.
- Monitoring email, web and network traffic, ensuring smooth operation and maximum uptime.
- Maintaining and updating security and backup measures of network and servers.
- Providing Enterprise level Server Setup and maintenance support to Hashoo group of companies.
Achievements:
- Planned and executed the Data Center upgrade activity. Seamlessly migrated and upgraded Dell PowerEdge server farm to HP G6 Proliant server farm.
- Automated system administration tasks using bash shell scripting.
- Developed PHP based web control panel for squid to manage internet and user restrictions.
Responsibilities:
- Part of the team managing Linux and Windows based Email, DNS, Proxy, FTP and many other servers which serve more than 15000 customers of Micronet/Nayatel (ISP).
- Managing Cpanel/WHM which provide web hosting services to more than 500 live domains.
- Assisting system administrators and providing support to corporate and SLA customers.
Achievements:
- Got letter of appreciation from the CEO in just 3 months after joining, recognizing my efforts in designing a web based knowledge base of common support and configuration issues and router interfaces that assisted support engineers in troubleshooting customer issues effectively.
- Promoted to the Systems Department from Technical Assistance Center based on performance.
- Got promoted to Network Support Engineer from Support Engineer based on performance and recommendation from the respective managers.
- Developed scripts to discard large spam queues and double bounced email problem in qmail-1.03. Using BASH, added features to qmailadmin for managing very large mailing lists.
- Configuration, maintenance and monitoring of network equipment (routers/switches/desktops).
- Ensuring network security and proper IP addressing.
- Maintenance of computer hardware and software.