drew jess, sysadmin

Contact

I'm a sysadmin who works on Linux and Unix servers.

I genuinely love working with complex systems and finding out what makes them tick.

I'm really passionate about automation! Faster! More consistent! More manageable! What's not to love?

If you're looking for a really competent sysadmin-type who is super-passionate about getting stuff done, I'm your man.

RHCE and RHCSA certified. Here's my certification profile: [link]

Why not drop me a line?

Operating Systems: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 / 6 / 7, Oracle Solaris 10
Volume Management & Clustering: Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM), Veritas Cluster Server (VCS), lvm, zfs
Storage: IBM XiV, EMC VMAX, Netapp
Source Control / Continual Integration / Build Automation: Git, Subversion, Jenkins, Vagrant
Configuration Management: Puppet, Ansible, Spacewalk / Katello
Languages: Shell (bash/ksh), Perl, Regexp, Puppet, PHP, Python, Ruby, SQL, Expect
Performance: Linux I/O and CPU tuning. Troubleshooting of application bottlenecks using standard OS tools.
Networking: Subnetting, VLANs, general troubleshooting.

Sky
Technical Analyst
July 2013 - Present

I work as a sysadmin in the Infrastructure Delivery division of Sky's Operations Engineering department.

Responsible for delivery and buildout of Linux / Unix servers for upcoming projects.
Deployed a 65-node Hadoop cluster, built with HP ProLiant hardware and Cloudera CDH software stack.
Deployed an 11-node Totara LMS installation. Apache 2.4, PHP 5.4, MySQL.
Automation of data refresh tasks. Authored scripts to mirror terabytes of data without administrative input.
Planned and performed migration of many business critical Oracle databases.
Primary maintainer of team's script repository and major contributor to Sky's Puppet codebase.
Authored Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 security baseline, pioneering its introduction at Sky.
Building bespoke RPMs for internal use.
Provide top-tier support of ~10,000 servers.

There's so much more that I'm proud of having achieved here, too. Each day brings something new to learn about!

Sky
Technology Graduate
July 2011 - July 2013

I joined the Sky Technology Graduate Scheme, which consisted of four placements:

Enterprise Network Support Analyst (September 2011 - January 2012)

Provided support for Sky's corporate network.
Administration of Cisco Catalyst & Nexus switches, ACE load balancers, FWSM firewalls
Responsible for the numerous leased lines that Sky operate and support across the world.
Performed a complete audit of the network estate.
Introduced the concept of data collection from network devices using bash, Perl and expect.

Genesys Implementation Engineer (February 2012 - July 2012)

Delivered new features to Sky's customer call-centre capability using Genesys products.
Administration of a vast estate of Windows Server 2003 / 2008 servers.
Performed major upgrade of customer call recording / archival platform.
Took responsibility for reviewing and improving monitoring platform.
Automated common administrative tasks using Microsoft PowerShell.

Technical Analyst - Unix Team (July 2012 - January 2013)

Responsible for delivery and buildout of Linux / Unix servers for upcoming projects.
Configuration of SAN storage using Veritas Volume Manager.
Configuration of highly-available services using Veritas Cluster Server.
Bugfixing and refactoring of build scripts.
Developed a bespoke web-based monitoring platform for Oracle GoldenGate using HTML, CSS and bash.
Offered a full-time role in the team following this placement.

Broadcast Network Support Analyst (January 2013 - July 2013)

Provided support for the cutting-edge networks which enable Sky's broadcast systems.
Involved in fault analysis and platform improvement discussions with a wide range of users.
Automated and scripted repetitive data analysis operations with bash, Perl and expect.
Designed and implemented a bespoke web application to record details of leased lines and related support relationships. Relational database design using MySQL and web front-end development with PHP.

KJT Consulting
Technical Consultant
June 2010 - December 2010

Performed in-depth analysis of large datasets using bash and Excel
Communicated interpretation of data analysis effectively to non-technical stakeholders.
Performed network design, hardware deployment and support functions for the company's head-office.
Provided advice with regards to technology-related company developments.

Misc. Hospitality Roles
Various positions, all at a leadership level
August 2005 - June 2010

Worked with a range of well respected companies throughout school and university to support myself.
Quickly became a trusted and indispensable member of staff.
Genuinely cared about providing great service to customers.
Promoted to leadership roles extremely quickly as a result of performance.

University of the West of Scotland

Dissertation:

Modules:

Awards:

Technology - keeping up with news and latest developments, especially in the open-source community.
Music - Playing guitar, attending gigs, collecting records.
Cycling.
Cooking and eating out.
Current affairs and politics.
Really good coffee.
Really good beer.
Videogames.