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Employment History:
December 2006 to presentIndependent Online Distribution Alliance
San Francisco, California
Senior Systems Administrator
IODA is the industry-leading digital distribution company for the global independent music community with a network of digital retail partners includes all the major distributors such as iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Rhapsody, Sprint, and Verizon as well as dozens of newly emerging outlets and distributing to over 300 online and mobile retailers around the world.
I was brought in to help this rapidly growing company upgrade from ‘home-brewed’ storage systems to much more robust and reliable systems utilizing Sun’s X4500 storage systems and ZFS for a lower total TCO.
Found special deals that allowed IODA to upgrade the main database from an aging unreliable system to a ‘five nines’ system running on Sun’s X4600 systems and Hitachi AMS200 SAN.
Utilized Sun's Solaris Cluster with Apache and a global file system on a Hitachi SAN to create a very reliable music distribution system that allows for future growth.
Planned and implemented a network redesign and upgrade to Cisco switches and security appliances.
Architected and installed equipment upgrades from 'homebuilt' systems running SuSe 9 to Sun Intel hardware running Solaris and Ubuntu.
June 2005 to October 2006PlanetOut Inc.,
San Francisco, California
Senior Unix Systems and Network Engineer
PlanetOut Inc. is the leading global media and entertainment company exclusively serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. PlanetOut's digital media brands include Gay.com, PlanetOut.com, OUT&ABOUT Travel, Advocate.com, Out.com, OutTraveler.com and HIVPlusMag.com, as well as localized versions of the Gay.com site in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. I joined a team of 5 Unix Engineers that are responsible for maintaining a large infrastructure of systems.
With my knowledge of Java based server systems, I was brought in to help modernize aging iPlanet / TCL systems with Java based systems. I evaluated options, designed, purchased and implemented a system using Sun'sJava Enterprise System running on state of the art T1000 and T2000 servers running Solaris 10 as a new platform for our websites. This also included extensive work with developers to design and deploy the new systems, purchasing new hardware, training teammates on the new systems and negotiating software contracts.
Deployed several new database servers, including an E6900 as the main oracle database server, which involved working closely with our Oracle DBAs and integrating it into an existing SAN on a Sun 6320 Storage Array.
Installed systems for Sarbanes-Oxley and PCI compliance, including a central logging system.
Provide tier 2 technical support for all internal office machines and network. This included repairs, updates, virus and firewall protection for a mixed environment of Windows, Mac and Linux end user systems.
Set up a standard install process for Solaris 10 and Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition.
May 2002 to June 2005 iWin Inc.,
San Francisco, California
Senior Network Administrator
iWin.com is an online community committed to entertaining and connecting people through games. Win, Inc. was incorporated in August 2001 as Next Game, Inc. with the objective of building a skill-based gaming community. In June of 2003, the company acquired iWin.com from Vivendi Universal. In an effort to extend our multiplayer offering and expand our community, iWin purchased Playsite.com from InfoSpace in August 2003. As a leading developer, publisher and provider of innovative online casual game communities, iWin has created a comprehensive suite of casual game offerings. I was brought in as one of iWin's earliest employees to build the network and systems up to a level capable of supporting tens of thousands of simultaneous online users.
I built the network and systems for iWin from the ground up to the almost 100 servers. This included setup of databases (MySQL and Oracle), web servers (Apache and Resin), game servers, mail (Postres and Lyris), DNS (bind), CVS, backup servers (Arkiea), Firewalls (Netscreen) Network and Systems monitoring (Big Brother and Munin) and Load Balancing (F5 and Alteon) on a mixed environment of GNU/Linux (Debian and Red Hat) and Sun Solaris machines.
Provided 24/7/365 on call availability for all systems, both Network Systems and office equipment.
Responsible for ordering all Network, Systems and office equipment.
This included maintaining a good working relationship with vendors and resellers such as F5, IBM, Pengiun Computing, Amherst Technologies, NTT/ Verio, Zedo, Websidestory, Intervision and many others.
Provide tier 2 technical support for all internal office machines and network. This included repairs, updates, virus and firewall protection for a mixed environment of Windows, Mac and Linux end user systems.
Supervised and trained Jr level admins.
May 2001 to December 2002 iStep
Communications, San Francisco, California
Senior
Network Administrator
iStep was a small ISP that survived the dot com carnage and needed an experienced Network and Systems administrator to see to the needs of customers. iStep provided web hosting, mail, DNS, DSL and hosting services. In this small company, I both interfaced with the end users as well as maintenance of servers, email, web pages and DSL lines. Perhaps the most difficult task at iStep was to jump into an existing network that had been put together by various consultants with little continuity or documentation. I strived to bring the systems up to higher standards as well as installed new systems, such as an online shopping system using the Red Hat Interchange system. All systems used Debian GNU/Linux.
April
2000 to June 2004 Gamelet.com,
San Francisco, California
Senior Network
Administrator
Installed and maintained a network of servers to run various projects for gamelet.com, which designed interactive web based games. These included www.triviabox.com which had interactive java based web trivia games. The servers are Debian GNU/Linux running Apache, J-serv, and Oracle. New challenges at gamelet included finding ways to maintain a connexion with client web browsers during interactive games through different sorts of firewalls and dealing with Java. Also had to tighten security for a network of programmers and users that were accustomed to doing things in a much less complicated, but insecure, manner. This was less of a technical challenge (knowing how to secure a network) than a human challenge of getting users to change some methods and habits. As always, I installed and maintained office internet connection and local Samba network and mail server; connected Windows and Mac clients to internet and office network. PacBell was particulaly troublesome in installing T1s this time around. I continue to do consulting work for Gamelet.com now, maintaining the Gamelet servers in CoLo in San Francisco.
June
1999 to April 2000 LuckySurf.com,
South San Francisco, California
Webmaster / Network
Administrator
Installed and maintained network of redundant front end servers that ran the Luckysurf.com website, using Debian GNU/Linux and Apache with mod perl. Vital information is stored on a mirrored drive using a patch to the Linux kernel which allows software RAID-1. (Which was new and exciting at the time!) The site had approximately 100,000 people play the sweepstakes game daily and 2,280,834 hits daily (as reported by webalizer). Installed and maintain the back end database server running MySQL. Installed Debian GNU/Linux on this RAID-5 machine, which required modifying and recreating the Debian install disks (which did include support for Mylex Raid controllers at the time) and using a custom compiled kernel.
Took the work of contracted web designers and integrated it with the scripts that other contracted programmers had written when I arrived to create the original live website. Added additional functionality to the back end scripts and debugged them. Set up staging servers which were identical to live servers for testing of development software and HTML.
Remained on call in case of server failure.
Maintained the Netscreen 100 firewall configuration.
Set up Cisco routers and CSU-DSU units.
Coordinated installation of two T1 connections.
Developed part of the perl code to run the website.
Installed and maintained office internet connection and local Samba network and mail server; connected Windows and Mac clients to internet and office network.
1996 to 1999 Warren Wilson CollegeCollege Work
Program, Asheville, North Carolina
Computing Services Crew Supervisor, Network Administrator, Web Site Administrator
Created the bulk of the College's web site using HTML and Perl from text given to me in various formats and photographs I took with a digital camera.
Built and maintained the college's web server using Linux, Apache and mod-perl. I was responsible for writing perl scripts for tasks as on line applications and on line book store ordering. Also set up alumni message board and assisted faculty in setting up department pages. Set up secure web server with Apache SSL and created virtual servers for college affiliate programs, such as the Swannanoa Gathering
Configured and maintained the college's DNS records using BIND 8 for our 25 class C domains.
Installed DHCP on a Slackware (later upgraded to Debian) Linux server to assign IP addresses to all campus lab, office and dorm computers across 3 class C domains. Lab clients were given static IP addresses.
Built the college's mail server using Slackware Linux (which replaced an aging UnixWare server) and compiled and maintained sendmail for ~ 1000 users.
Installed and configured Samba server for file and print sharing for 3 computer labs to replace an NT server installation which was not performing properly. The new system allowed me to let users log in and have access to their personal home directories via NFS on the Samba server. Passwords were centralized on one NIS server for network logins as well as email (POP3, IMAP and web based email) and ftp access to campus web server.
Repaired hardware, installed software, and set up Windows networks.
Supervised the Computer Crew included training, scheduling, giving work assignments and facilitating weekly crew meetings.
Installed and was Supreme Deity of campus MUD server. A note about the Warren Wilson College work program: students receive both a diploma and a certificate for completing the work program. I worked (officially) 20 hours a week (usually more) in the campus computer department during the school year and full time during breaks. With only one paid full time computer staff person, the bulk of the work on the campus computers and networks was performed by students. Please see the college's web page for more information about the Work Program.
Education:
1999 B.A. Warren
Wilson College,
Asheville, North Carolina
Other training:
Crisis
Intervention Training, Contact Tidewater, Virginia Beach
Virginia
Third
Class Radiotelephone Operators License, WFOS-Chesapeake
Leadership
Training through the Unitarian
Universalist Association, Boston, Massachusetts
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