Jeffrey Watts

watts@jayhawks.net

10115 Redbud Lane
Lenexa, KS 66220
(913) 780-1625



Objective

I am seeking a significant and challenging position in Unix and Linux system administration with a Kansas City company interested in adding my extensive experience, proven technical leadership, and excellent communication skills to their organization.



Profile



Skills

Unix System Administration, TCP/IP networking, hardware configuration, technical and end user support, hardware and software troubleshooting, on-call dependability. Bourne Shell, Expect, Perl, PHP, SQL. HP-UX, IRIX, Linux, MacOS, Solaris operating systems. Dell, HP, SGI, Sun hardware. Active Directory Integration, Cacti, Kerberos, LDAP, Nagios, RHN Satellite, SNMP. Apache, BIND, GlassFish, JBoss, NTP, OSIAM, PostgreSQL, Sendmail.



Experience

Jun 2010 - Present
Senior Linux System Administrator at Adknowledge. I work as a system administrator as part of a team responsible for over 600 servers running SuSE Linux Enterprise Server on a mix of Dell hardware and VMware virtual machines. My major projects involve improving and expanding their Nagios monitoring, centralizing authentication and authorization, and configuration management.

Jul 2009 - Apr 2010
Contractor at H&R Block. I was tasked with several projects aimed at improving H&R Block's ability to manage and audit their HP-UX and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems. Drawing on skills gained through the RHCE certification process along with fifteen years of experience in Linux and Unix system administration, I accomplished my tasks on time, completely, and without need of supervision. Here are some of my major accomplishments:

Active Directory integration. I integrated H&R Block's Unix and Linux user account and access management into their existing Windows Active Directory infrastructure. This migration replaced a manual, labor-intesive, and difficult to audit process with one providing centralized management using familiar Windows tools. My implementation used PAM, Kerberos, NSS_LDAP (Linux), and LDAP-UX (HP-UX), and relied on tools that were supported by the OS vendor, avoiding the use of costly third-party software and streamlining support. Nearly a thousand user accounts were migrated, access control was tightened, and hundreds of unneeded accounts were removed.

RHN Satellite. As part of an effort to streamline patching and new server deployments, I deployed Red Hat's server management system, RHN Satellite. Using Satellite, I created custom server build scripts that allow new systems to be deployed in as little as five minutes, a dramatic improvement over a process that usually took a full day. Custom configuration was included, including deployment during server build of important third party applications and utilities such as VMware Tools, NetBackup, ProLiant Support Pack, etc are now able to be automatically deployed. This infrastructure also allows for rapid patching and rollbacks, enabling H&R Block to patch all of its Linux systems in a week or two (depending on production availability), compared to the three months it took previously.

Organizational improvements. While there, I made several important organizational improvements. First of all, I reorganized and expanded their server documentation, making note of important information such as domain, network location, and server status. I also inventoried their support levels and identified many development and test systems that improperly had 24/7 support, which will save H&R Block thousands of dollars over time. Finally, I did a support budget analysis for fiscal year 2011 through 2013, recommending that H&R Block consolidate its support dates so as to save approximately $26,000 up front and make its support renewal process much easier in the long run.

May 1998 - Mar 2009
Systems Administrator III for Sprint Nextel. I was the lead administrator of two clusters of SGI Origin servers responsible for the collection and processing of $35 million in billing per day from Sprint's Nortel DMS long distance telephone switch network. My responsibilities included resolving hardware, operating system, and application issues, coordinating developers, managing vendors, and working with customers to exceed the company's goal of 99.99% availability. In addition, I was the secondary administrator for three Sun Enterprise clusters collecting Sprint's ATM and Frame Relay billing as well as a large, real-time fraud detection and prevention platform consisting of twenty-four diverse Sun Solaris systems. I also provided key technical leadership for many business critical projects ranging from application updates to entire system redesigns in support of new product releases. For example, due to my lengthy experience with Linux, I was selected to serve on Sprint's Linux Evaluation Team that set standards and made vendor recommendations for Sprint's ongoing strategic rollout of Linux into the enterprise.

I was formally recognized seven times during my time with Sprint. In 1999 I received three Sprint Values Excellence awards for my work in upgrading a critical platform and for moving several applications from non-Y2K-compliant systems onto supported systems. I received another in 2000 for my efforts supporting the deployment of a new Nortel DMS long distance switch in record time. I also received an award for my success in recovering several million dollars worth of lost billing information in 2001. Later that year, I was awarded a Sprint Annual Award for my successful efforts to prevent a troubled switch deployment from failing, helping prepare the company to meet increasing customer demand. In 2007 I received a merit award for continued, superior performance and customer focus.

Mar 1997 - May 1998
System Administrator for Internet Direct Communications. Responsibilities included maintaining a dozen Linux and BSD/OS servers that provided infrastructure and customer services including email, DNS, Usenet News, and webhosting for this regional Internet Service Provider. I also provided support for several Cisco, Ascend, and Bay Networks Internet routers. I maintained positive relationships with vendors and clients and supervised the technical support department consisting of six direct reports. In addition, I developed, deployed, and supported a web-based accounting and administration system (using PHP, PostgreSQL, and Apache), streamlining business operations through the automation of complex billing and administrative functions.



Education

University of Kansas

Completed four years of coursework towards a degree in Computer Science. Courses included: Discrete Structures, Computer Systems and Assembly Language, Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis, Computer Architecture and Networks, and Introduction to Automata Theory.

Red Hat Training

SGI Customer Education Services

Sun Educational Services



Organizations

Sep 1996 - Present
Founder of KULUA, the Kansas Unix & Linux Users Association, a large Linux and BSD users group based in Lawrence, which brings together over 350 professionals and enthusiasts from the Lawrence, Topeka, and Kansas City areas.

Mar 2009 - Present
Member of the Kansas City VMware Users Group.


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