IT Professional of 20 Years
Expansive career supporting and developing on a diverse set of platforms in enterprise data centers as well as remote locations. Over 17 years working with IBM Spectrum Protect (formerly Tivoli Storage Manager) server and client software in those environments. Perl/Shell programming for over 15 years. Special focus on development of automation, data collection, reporting, analysis, alerting and deep-dive problem determination.
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies - California State University, Sacramento – 1995
Concentration in Telecommunications and Informatics, minor in art.
Various Professional Training Courses and Conferences - 1997-Present
AIX System Administration, ITIL Basics, SHARE User-Driven Training Events, Cisco MDS9509 Fibre Channel switch implementation, IBM International Storage Symposium, Microsoft MSCE Tract (Windows NT 4), TSM Administration, Perl Programming, Microsoft SQL Server.
Professional Experience
Consultant, Tyson Foods, Inc (contract) – Springdale, AR – Oct 2015 to Present
- Managed TSM server environment including 11 AIX LPARs running TSM 6.3 to 7.1 and 3 IBM 3584 tape libraries.
- Developed and executed project to upgrade all TSM servers to the latest 7.1 level and standardize configuration.
- Maintained daily TSM jobs and addressed issues requiring intervention.
- Performed detailed analysis of processes and data flow to find efficiencies for better performance and resource utilization.
- Automated daily processes with Perl and shell scripts to manage hardware resources more efficiently.
- Development of web applications for reporting of TSM environment to monitor throughput, job scheduling and tape drive utilization as well as tape volume auditing.
- Worked with IBM TSM support on all issues discovered in the environment.
- Worked on some Cisco SAN zoning and IBM SVC storage allocation.
Project Manager/Team Lead, IBM at Walmart Stores, Inc. (contract) – Bentonville, AR – Feb 2010 to Oct 2015
- Team and technical lead for a group of TSM administrators managing a global environment of over 3200 TSM servers in stores, distribution centers and remote sites.
- Provided direction on problem determination and root cause analysis.
- Worked complex issues and was escalation point for all issues from the team.
- Communicated with customer on technical and administrative issues.
- Provided project management.
- Developed install/upgrade and trouble-shooting automation.
Support Analyst/Consultant, IBM at Walmart Stores, Inc. (contract) – Bentonville, AR – Aug 2005 to Jan 2010
- As the Premium Support Analyst acted as on-site strategic support for Tivoli Storage Manager for Walmart’s global home offices consisting of 32 TSM server instances across 8 countries.
- Interfaced directly with customer and TSM level 2 support on all TSM related issues.
- Ran customized reports based on information requested from the customer.
- Additional tasks included project management and implementation, script development and maintenance, on-call support, day to day TSM administration, change control implementation, TSM version recommendations, TSM capacity planning and customer knowledge transfer.
Senior Storage Administrator, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. – San Francisco, CA – Jan 1997 to Jul 2005
Senior Storage Administrator/Lead, Information Operations Center Storage Group (most recent position)
- Primary responsibilities included administration of TSM server hardware and software as well as StorageTek libraries, tape drives and library management software across two 24-hour data centers.
- Designed and implemented new TSM related hardware and software upgrades and additions.
- Interfaced with and provided consulting to other storage team members regarding disk storage and Fibre Channel switches.
- Served as lead for all other TSM administrators.
- Worked with internal clients on trouble-shooting backup issues across all platforms.
Senior Storage Architect, Enterprise Services Group
- Responsible for evaluating and making recommendations for storage related products including backup and recovery software/hardware, Fibre Channel switches and storage subsystems.
- Worked on long term storage strategy.
Senior Systems Administrator/Storage Management Specialist, Client Server Support Group
- Primary administrator for a large enterprise-wide Tivoli Storage Manager implementation in a 24-hour mission critical data center.
- UNIX system administration (AIX, SUN, HP-UX)
- Client consulting
- Network design and trouble-shooting
- Windows Server administration
- Application monitoring and trouble-shooting (SAP R/3, web applications and internally developed applications)
- Internal training and technical writing.
Systems Administrator, Application Server Support Group
- Supported a primarily Windows Server 24-hour data center.
- CommVault enterprise backup and recovery system administration
- NT application server (primarily MS SQL Server 6.5/7) administration, support and maintenance
- NT File and print server support
- Sun Solaris administration.
Computer Analyst, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (contract) – San Francisco, CA – Mar 1996 to Dec 1996
Desktop PC support. Responsibilities Included: software and hardware support, user training, Banyan/NT/Novell server support.
Computer Analyst, Intel Corporation – Folsom, CA – Aug 1995 to Mar 1996
Skills and Accomplishments
Technical
- Enterprise Data Centers: 20 years experience working in large data center operations. Broad understanding of hardware and software technologies used in these environments and how they integrate. Special focus on monitoring and reporting for improved performance and efficiency.
- Enterprise Backup/Recovery: Expert knowledge of Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) design, implementation and support in large enterprise environments (17 years). Able to quickly identify and resolve TSM related issues. Backup and recovery across all major operating systems. Oracle, Informix and Microsoft SQL/Exchange database backup and recovery. Experienced with large scale systems as well as small low-cost solutions. Extensive work with bare metal restore tools and techniques.
- Tape Libraries: Experienced with tape subsystems including IBM’s 3494 and 3200 series libraries and StorageTek’s 9310. Extensive work with native TSM library sharing and experience with StorageTek’s ACSLS library management software.
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuance: Knowledgeable on various offsite data transport methodologies and technologies. Experience designing remote tape vaulting systems.
- Systems Administration: Experienced with AIX, Linux and Windows. Some work on Sun Solaris and HP/UX. Exposure to clustered server environments.
- Development: Strong Perl and shell programming skills with experience in full stack web development using MySQL, Perl, Python, HTML and Apache.
- Deployment Automation: Worked with enterprise tools to develop and deploy installs and updates to thousands of systems. Developed custom install and automation scripts.
- Network Monitoring: Knowledge of SNMP protocol and management software/utilities.
- Storage Area Networking: Familiarity with Cisco enterprise class Fibre Channel directors. Understanding of Storage Area Network concepts and technologies.
- Excellent understanding of LAN infrastructure and topology concepts. Experience with network sniffers/analyzers. Some exposure to router and firewall configuration.
- Ability to troubleshoot problems logically and analytically on a broad array of hardware and software platforms.
Leadership & Communication
- Team lead for local and offshore support organization. Coordinated and delegated work as required by business.
- Experience with planning and implementing projects with an emphasis on teamwork.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills as well as exceptional organizational skills.
- Superior customer service skills.
Projects and Accomplishments
- Developed real-time web-based TSM performance charts to better understand TSM server throughput and scheduling.
- Automated roll out of 10,000+ TSM client upgrades.
- Designed and programmed a Perl based TSM scheduling and reporting system.
- Technical lead for an enterprise Fibre Channel switch evaluation and implementation.
- Primary TSM administrator for design and implementation of remote tape vaulting using TSM and CNT channel extension.
- Technical Lead on testing and implementation of Tivoli Storage Manager and CommVault enterprise backup systems.