Advanced Skier
Andrew McKellar
UNIX/Linux System Administrator
30 Edith Drive
Summary
To join a company looking to utilize a System Administrator with 25+ years of experience. I hope to be able to help develop and build highly available systems and services using containers and VMs with cloud, and server virtualization. The ideal opportunity will rely on my enthusiasm for learning new technologies, as well as my broad base of knowledge and experience.
Overview
30
30
years of professional experience
2
2
years of post-secondary education
2
2
Certifications
Work History
Senior Systems Admin
Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ)
1 2022 - Current
- Provided technical leadership, mentoring team members in best practices for source control, Linux rollout and customization using Ansible/foreman.
- Implemented five node ProxmoxVE cluster to move away from Hyper-V, non-redundant setup and increase overall speed and reliability of VMs.
- Enhanced team collaboration, implementing centralized internal version control system using GitLab using docker compose, for IT, finance, and reporting teams.
- Maintained high availability of Linux servers and workstations with multiple Nvidia GPUs through vigilant monitoring using Zabbix graphs and alerts; preventive maintenance and rapid issue resolution using Ansible/foreman.
- Streamlined postgresql and mongodb backup and recovery processes, enhancing overall system stability and availability.
Senior Linux Administrator
SPINVFX
03.2020 - 12.2021
- Used forman and katello to built out a CentOS infrastructure. Katello was used to manage repositories and updates. Changes were made possible via puppet & ansible.
- Azure cloud infrastructure used to create images for remote graphical workstations.
- Maintained Teradici Security Gateways and Leostream connection broker for a fleet of workstations used by remote video editing artists.
- Graylog setup for monitoring servers, workstations, and other devices for security and other issues. Reports and alerting used to keep informed.
- Zabbix, with PostgreSQL backend, used to keep an eye on the infrastructure including alerting and reporting on availability, storage and network performance.
- Maintained large Linux environment with some macs and windows systems. Vmware infrastructure was used to host server infrastructure.
System Administrator
Avenza Systems Inc.
04.2019 - 01.2020
- Used ubuntu 18 and docker to host various applications. (gitlab, confluence, reverse proxies using letsencrypt.)
- Converted developer's build VMs from VMware Workstation to ESXi.
- Replaced a flaky, under-powered wifi system with Ubiquiti access points.
- Migrated 100s of users to G-Suite from a very old and outdated postfix installation.
- Implemented monitoring solutions on Datadog, New Relic, Zabbix on ubuntu linux, AWS Cloudwatch and PagerDuty.
- Built backbone 10G network for storage transport to ESXi hosts and QNAP.
UNIX System Administrator
2Keys Corporation
08.2013 - 09.2018
- Incident and Change Management using Jira and Confluence.
- Improved our stats visibility by building an HA Zenoss system with corosync, pacemaker, and DRBD running on CentOS 7
- Linux (CentOS 6 & 7), ESXi 6.5 troubleshooting and maintenance.
- DELL and HP Server maintenance and monitoring using dedicated out of band network.
- Fixed WiFi dead spots with enterprise mesh system from Ubiquity.
- Maintained internal and external facing bind DNS servers on CentOS 6.
- DHCP services were maintained with dnsmasq on OpenBSD.
System Administrator
North Rock Communications
11.2011 - 06.2013
- Designed and built a fault tolerant LAMP environment using CentOS, Corosync, Pacemaker and DRBD to run ISP tools.
- Inherited 2 EVA arrays that were reorganized for better usage and performance.
- Developed processes with git for configuration file distribution and backup.
- Maintained VMware ESXi systems for all teams. Used OpenVPN to separate production from development environments.
- Supported an Exchange Server for use by our internal office users.
- Updated and virtualized the bind DNS servers using CentOS6 on ESXi.
System Administrator
Nextactive Networks Inc.
01.2007 - 01.2011
- Built and maintained a VMware vSphere cluster with 3 ESXi nodes in an HA/Vmotion configuration.
- Used CFengine to distribute configuration files to hundreds of Linux hosts. Files were stored in Subversion repository.
- Maintained EMC CX500 unit and 8 fiber switches. Excel was used to document storage usage.
- Maintained 2 data centre locations and 1 office server room.
- Built and maintained a CentOS based, multi-host email system using Zimbra, postfix/DSPAM for hundreds of users.
System Administrator
Excapsa Software
01.2003 - 01.2007
- Built Linux systems using RedHat’s kickstart process and maintained them with monitoring and change management tools; Nagios and CFengine.
- Maintained 3 EMC devices using Navisphere.
- Championed VMware Server in an environment where VMware was deemed unreliable. It was utilized to trim down the number of test/dev systems as well as the management and provisioning systems.
- Designed and built a cross platform authentication system using LDAP, KRB, and autofs. These systems were utilized from multiple locations.
- Responsible bandwidth usage for OS updates was made possible by using a squid proxy.
System Administrator
Mohawk Internet Technologies
01.2000 - 01.2003
- Supported demanding and expectant customers of a constantly expanding data center. Participated in an on-call rotation.
- Created ethernet switch provisioning tool for Cisco and Extreme switches in PHP in a LAMP Env.
- Maintained Internet facing DNS and Sendmail installations on FreeBSD.
Internet Support Technician
Taima Corporation
01.1995 - 01.1999
- Supported customers of two major ISPs over the phone. Issues relating to dialup and cable connectivity.
- Used Slackware Linux to troubleshoot various problems with email, DNS and routing.
- Gained expertise in multiple client operating systems and client-side applications for email, browsing and file downloading.
Education
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Algonquin College, Ottawa, Ontario
01.1993 - 05.1995
Skills
Unix/Linux: RHEL/CentOS (4,5,6,7), macOS, Windows, BSDs and Solaris
undefinedCertification
Architecting with Google Cloud Platform
Interests
Basketball Junkie
Music Lover
Certified Scuba Diver
Avid Outdoorsman
Semi-Pro Angler
Timeline
Senior Linux Administrator
SPINVFX
03.2020 - 12.2021
System Administrator
Avenza Systems Inc.
04.2019 - 01.2020
Architecting with Google Cloud Platform
01-2019
UNIX System Administrator
2Keys Corporation
08.2013 - 09.2018
System Administrator
North Rock Communications
11.2011 - 06.2013
System Administrator
Nextactive Networks Inc.
01.2007 - 01.2011
System Administrator
Excapsa Software
01.2003 - 01.2007
RedHat Certified Engineer 7.2
01-2001
System Administrator
Mohawk Internet Technologies
01.2000 - 01.2003
Internet Support Technician
Taima Corporation
01.1995 - 01.1999
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Algonquin College, Ottawa, Ontario
01.1993 - 05.1995
Senior Systems Admin
Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ)
1 2022 - Current
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