Datacenter Engineer, Project: KAUST
Wipro Arabia Ltd.
Total years of experience :19 years, 5 Months
Manage and support operations of five datacenters and critical facilities at KAUST
Business DC, Research DC, SuperComputing DC, Exchange/Telecom DC and Alternate Exchange DC.
At KAUST we have supercomputer called ‘SHAHEEN 2’ (CRAY XC40 world’s top 7th supercomputer) and we support its operation which consists of cabling FOC/UTP/Power, access authorization, maintenance of its cooling systems, monitoring CPU/Nodes utilization and its power consumption.
Day to day activities are physical and software level monitoring of all five datacenters, monitoring of its electrical systems, mechanical pumps/heat exchangers, cooling systems, chilled water systems, Power/UPS, batteries, fire alarm and fire suppression systems.
Application level monitoring of DC via ‘struxureware data center expert’ and ICAS systems.
Manage and monitor power consumption in each rack/PDU, temperature & humidity controls, and ‘TTK leak detection systems’ for any water leaks under raised floors.
Installation of racks like APC, Systemax and SUN in datacenters. Installation of hardware in the racks like HP DL380, SunFire X4450/T5440, SunBlade 6000, Dell PowerEdge, Junipers, Spectra T200, EMC VNX backup storages, Cisco switches/CRS and Systemax UTP/Fiber patch panels to name a few.
Installing and configuring Operating systems/VMware, raid Controllers, ILOM/IPMI. Upgrading firmware of systems, changing hardware like RAM, HDD, fans and board assembly.
Installing of UTP/Fiber patch panel termination. Patching of UTP and fiber cables. Crimping, laying cables and giving connectivity between patch panels switches and machines. Giving UTP/Fiber connectivity between different density rooms and buildings.
Taking backups on Spectra T200, changing tapes. Installation and configuration of APC cameras. Monitoring cameras relay on big screen via Structure ware Central.
Providing DC access to the vendors, visitors, and other team members based on the requirements and work permits. Arranging tours of ‘supercomputer’ for research/PhD students in KAUST.
Coordinating with the vendors and different teams for scheduled activity, downtime and preventive maintenance of mechanical pumps/heat exchanger, chilled water cooling systems, ACU/AHU, fire controls, Power/UPS batteries.
Maintaining the hardware inventory and updating the same on periodic basis. Maintaining hardware stores, preparing weekly/monthly reports on major activities, incidents reports, work permits, and facility tickets.
Training programs attended at KAUST:
Training on ‘StruxureWare Data Center Expert’ monitoring system.
Failure scenarios and impact analysis of cooling systems and heat exchangers.
High level view of DC power infrastructure with main feeders and substations.
Certificate and awards received at KAUST:
Contributions in installing KAUST newest supercomputer ‘SHAHEEN 2’ Successfully migration of all security devices in business datacenter.
Heath and safely management system.
Managing IT operations at ‘End User Support’ with a team size of 17 members which includes end user support team and asset team. Single point of contact for all IT- end user support service delivery across the kingdom.
Managing day to day operations with help of HP service manager tool were supporting more than 1700 end users which include HQ, 40 branches, corporate offices, call center and cash center across the kingdom.
Assigning monitoring and tracking incidents/service request on daily basis and preparing reports, coordinating with teams in order to drive the calls to closure.
Vendor Management- coordinating with vendors and making sure that vendor incidents are addressed within SLA and needs of the customer are fulfilled.
Asset Management- monitoring and tracking customers IT assets which includes PC, printers, toners and other peripheral devices and providing inventory reports on weekly basis for the same.
New Branch setup- Planning scheduling and monitoring the branch setup and make sure it comes into production environment. Ensuring the hardware is installed, PC’s are imaged with standard OS of the bank and all other peripheral devices are functional.
Microsoft SCCM management- responsible for patch rollout, OS deployments, software deployments and asset inventory. Raising new change request in HPSM tool as per the user requirements and ensuring that it is implemented as per the bank policies.
PO Management- raising purchase requests for H/w & S/w as per the bank requirements and following up with procurement department and vendors for the final delivery of the items. Maintaining DV inventories, licenses and warranties.
Have weekly/month review with the customer and Wipro management on the ongoing operation status and issues. Preparing shift rooster, allowance and Holiday Work Claim for the team.
Special task/Projects managed at Alinma Bank:
Laptop Recall: Recalling more than 350 laptops assigned to Alinma users, activity includes re-checking of laptops as per bank security standard.
Windows7 Testing: testing all banking application on windows7 OS, activity includes coordinating and scheduling testing with application support teams.
Windows7 rollout and Asset Tagging: OS deployment with help of SCCM tool, migration from Vista to windows7 and tagging assets for PC’s in HQ.
Services Pack and AV rollout: ensuring that entire PC’s of bank are installed with required SP and AV
Report to the central region ‘Head of Technology support Department’
Preparing daily / weekly reports for the ongoing tasks/project assigned.
Managing active directory domain accounts of the bank users in different regions and branches, assigning rights and access policies.
Day to day activity include second level support to users by using Hp open view service desk software and remote assistance.
System level support includes hardware maintenance, operating system 2000 XP Vista, upgrades hot fixes patches.
Application level support includes installing and configuring various banking software like static data, business objects, oracle financial advisor, telemoney system, pension system, signature retrieve / capture, finacle to name a few.
Core level support includes Bank Master a DOS/ UNIX based system to maintain banks customer information.
Network level support includes DSL network, ANB network, IPO network which include IP assigning and configuring.
Executive level support includes support to high level officers like HOD / MD / HR etc.
Worked on IBM lotus notes as primary email client, include installing configuring and troubleshooting. Also worked on Ms Outlook as connector to lotus notes.
Updating and upgrading IT services by keeping the systems up-to-date by installing all Microsoft vulnerabilities and protecting with McAfee e-policy frame work.
Worked on Hp printers and dot matrix printers like SEDCO ultima 45, 50, and 80 to generate bank statements, reports and check printing.
Desktop Support to office staff which includes installations and troubleshooting of OS & n/w printers.
Worked on Sun Servers with sun Solaris 9 OS. (Sun Fire 280R, V880, Sun Blade 150 cluster storages)
Manage file system, system boot procedures, system processes like Cron jobs, perform system backup and restore, install and remove patches on clusters, monitor system access and usability.
Migration and Deployments in Trial & online Production Sun servers. Updating the application from development servers to Production Sun servers.
Taking Backups on Sun Storage L9, Windows backup on HP Storage Works via EMC2
Managing troubleshooting of VOIP SMS servers and VPN
Running database scripts on DB-servers. Managing ISP’s thro’ F5 internet load balancing.
Datacenter Management; communicate vendors for Support / hardware requirements.
Monitoring/configuring networks database & router traffic via MRTG
Creating RTFTP and FTP for users, managing file server.
Providing online technical support to the customers using the application SaudiEDI.com