Shortcuts: Skills, Professional Experience, Projects, Publications, Professional Qualification, Academic Qualification

OBJECTIVES

Interested in adding value to your entire IT infrastructure.

SKILLS

Note: Skills ranking legend: Ranking 1=Beginner level, Ranking 10=Expert level

PROFESSIOANAL EXPERIENCE

Arabic Computer Systems, Dhahran/Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia (Aug 2008 to Date)

Linux Support Engineer for High Performance Compute Clusters at Saudi Aramco

• Working in Saudi Aramco as Team Lead for Linux High Performance Computing Cluster Support team from ACS, working in-turn with Aramco's HPCC team, formally known as ENOD.

• Responsible for providing support to fourteen, 128 nodes Linux HPC clusters, and two 512 nodes HPC cluster (based on Infiniband), with compute powers in excess of 41 Tera Flops. The 512 nodes clusters are the largest in Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) region. Ranked # 134 in Top 500 Super Computer list, November 2009.

• Work in close co-ordination with Saudi Aramco HPCC / ECC / ENOD teams and Platform Manage (Formerly Scali Manage), Cluster Vision, Dell and RedHat for HPCC clusters related issues and solutions.

PakCyber, Rawalpindi (Aug 2003 to Date)

Remote Linux System Administration (External Consultant)

• Provide remote system administration services for designing and deploying Linux based server solutions for PakCyber, and their clients in Pakistan and around the world.

• Provide multiple layers of security for various servers, including Web, Mail, Database, FTP, etc.

• Responsible for implement host based firewalls to protect individual servers. Includes implementation of Network based and Host based Intrusion Detection Systems.

• Responsible to patch server software components to close down security vulnerabilities.

• Responsible for periodic backups of web applications and databases.

• Provide guide-lines to web-developers on writing secure and efficient web applications.

• Advise on, and implement, general information security practices, and business continuity solutions, such as high availability, virtualization, etc.

AutoGateway, UK (Mar 2005 to Date)

Remote Linux System Administration (External Consultant)

• Provide remote system administration services for designing and deploying Linux based server solutions for AutoGateway .

• Provide multiple layers of security for various servers, including Web, Mail, Database, FTP, etc.

• Responsible for implement host based firewalls to protect individual servers. Includes implementation of Network based and Host based Intrusion Detection Systems.

• Responsible to patch server software components to close down security vulnerabilities.

• Responsible for periodic backups of web applications and databases.

• Provide guide-lines to web-developers on writing secure and efficient web applications.

• Advise on, and implement, general information security practices, and business continuity solutions, such as high availability, virtualization, etc.

Ora-Tech Systems , Islamabad (Jan 2005 to Nov 2007) [Reference page 1, page 2, page 3]

Consultant Databases, Networks and Open-Source Technologies (Last position) June 2006 to date

• Provide consultancy for various on going projects at various clients' sites, on Oracle Database design and implementations, human resource management, and implementation and customization of any Open-Source technology, including, but not limited to: RedHat Enterprise Linux.

• Report to Executive Vice-President for all issues and suggestions.

• Collaborate with branch managers and vice presidents from various departments and suggest and involve in new business opportunities.

• Discuss, and propose methods to administration to improve quality of service and revenue generation.

[Promotion] Assistant Technical Support Manager July 2005 to February 2006

Previous responsibilities added up with the following:

• Guiding and helping the technical support people in secure deployment of various Oracle and Linux based technologies

• Deployment of technical support resources to various in-house and client side problems

• Conflict resolution at peer and lower / sub-ordinate level

• Collaboration between higher level management and technical support department

• Help design and discuss mile-stones for the organization’s revenue generating strategies.

• Discuss ideas and solutions with clients

• Manage various human and technical resources at clients' side

• Provide consulting and counseling services to junior employees, internees and management trainees.

• Assist in conducting technical interviews for new inductions in the company.

• Report to Technical Support Manager for all issues

Oracle DBA January 2005 to June 2005

Responsible :

• To install configure and tune, various Oracle products for both client side deployments and in-house testing, including, but not limited to: Oracle Databases, Oracle Collaboration Suite, etc.

• To manage various RedHat Enterprise Linux servers running Oracle Databases and provide technical support and training for the same.

• To provide suggestions and solutions in terms of Network, Security and Operating systems, involved in solving clients' problems.

• Provide / conduct Oracle and Linux training when-ever and where-ever required, either in-house or clients' side.

• To implement SonicWall firewalls and deliver training for the same.

• Report to Assistant Technical Support Manager.

NCR Education Center, Islamabad Jul 2004 to Jul 2005 [Reference]

Trainer: Linux System Administration (Evening)

• Responsible for conducting Linux system administration training to government officials as per announced by Pakistan Computer Bureau (PCB)

K.B. Computers, Islamabad (Morning) June 1995 to Jan 2005 [Reference page 1, page 2]

Technical Manager (Last position) January 2003 to January 2005

Responsible for :

• Maintaining Linux based computer network setup in the office. Various services provided by this network are: web services using Apache, Email collaboration through Qmail, Web caching and content control through SQUID, Traffic / bandwidth control using "iptables" firewall, PostgreSQL and MySQL database servers, FTP server, File sharing and printing using Samba.

• Consultancy services for open-source software, particularly RedHat Linux, PERL, Apache, PostgreSQL, SQUID, Network Security and Firewalls.

• Development of open-source software mainly in PERL , PERL (CGI).

• Deployment and management of open-source databases: PostgreSQL and MySQL on Linux platforms.

• Place various technical resources to clients' sites, as needed.

• Attend meetings with clients and resolve any technical queries and issues.

• Look after the company's Linux based computer network.

• Promote Linux and related Open-Source Technologies to clients and assist them in adopting the Linux / Open-source office automation model for their respective offices and IT departments.

• Help programmers and DBAs in software development.

[Promotion] Assistant Technical Manager January 2001 to December 2002

Responsible for :

• Design and implement networks as per customers' requirements.

• Supervise network technicians for correctly and properly implement the solutions to customers' networking requirements.

• Help determine networking equipment for customers' networking needs.

• Assist customers in their database design and software connectivity with their Oracle databases over the network.

[Promotion] Technical Supervisor January 1998 to Dec 2000

Responsible for :

• Supervise the technical staff to perform day to day operations.

• Lead the computer technicians in assembling the computer systems, install required Operating System and supporting software.

• Lead the up-gradation activities of customers' computers.

• Assist network technicians in network cables layout, connector attachments, etc.

• Assist network technicians in installation and configuration of Microsoft Windows NT Server and Workstation operating systems and their various TCP/IP settings.

Hardware and Software Technician June 1995 to December 1997

Responsible for :

• Assemble various components of a PC together.

• Install and configure MS-DOS operating system and Windows environment on PCs.

• Install drivers for various hardware components and peripherals in the PC, e.g. Sound Cards, Modems, Scanners and Printers, etc.

• Trouble-shoot hardware and software issues of customer's PCs, including data recovery operations.

• Train junior resources to be able to perform the same activities outlined above.

PROJECTS

Project (Migration of a live Shared-Hosting server from Plesk to ISPConfig on a XEN powered Virtual Server, for PakCyber):

• Setup XEN Para-Virtualization VM hosting on one of the newly acquired servers. Created a 64 bit Para-Virtual machine and migrated the hosting services from Plesk to ISPConfig on this new VM. Setup firewalls, restricted user accounts, key based authentication, automated backup solutions, database restrictions, etc.

Hardware: Intel Core 2 Duo servers.

Software: CENTOS 5 as base OS on the servers. XEN. ISPConfig-3 as Hosting Control Panel. Various services running on top of this setup: DNS (BIND), FTP (PureFTPd), Web (Apache), Mail server/SMTP (Postfix), Anti-Spam (SPAM Assassin), Anti-Virus (ClamAV), POP and IMAP (Courier), Database (MySQL), Firewall (IPTables, CSF), etc.

Project (Co-Author and Co-Trainer of HPCC training for Saudi ARAMCO): [Reference]

• Developed a complete HPCC training material for Aramco HPCC/UNIX/CSYS team members' training, based on real life situations we face at Aramco. Author of about 2/3^rd part of the training material.

• Took part in delivering the training for the same training material, mentioned above, to Saudi Aramco HPCC/UNIX/CSYS members.

Hardware: DELL PowerEdge 1950, M600 and M610 Servers, Infiniband, Gbit Ethernet (Dell 6248).

Software: RHEL 4.x/5.x, Scali (Platform Manage), Cluster Vision OS, PBS (Portable Batch System), Various cluster tools such as xcat, etc.

Project (Platform Manage/Scali training videos for Saudi ARAMCO):

• Created Training Videos about installation and configuration of Platform Manage/Scali on clusters, particularly Dell M600 and M610 blade servers. The training videos are for ACS and Aramco HPCC team's internal training and reference. (Not public).

Hardware: DELL PowerEdge 1950, M600 and M610 Servers, Infiniband, Gbit Ethernet (Dell 6248).

Software: RHEL 4.x/5.x, Scali (Platform Manage), Cluster Vision OS, PBS (Portable Batch System), Various cluster tools such as xcat, etc.

Project (High Performance Computing Cluster setup and technical support at Saudi ARAMCO):

• Took part, as lead software engineer, in installation of various Dell-HPC Clusters at Aramco, ranging from 128 nodes to 512 nodes.

• Developed a complete HPCC training material for Aramco HPCC team members' training, based on real life situations we face at Aramco.

• Taking part in a project to centralize entire documentation of all Aramco HPC Clusters into single Wiki style repository.

• Created Training Videos about installation and configuration of Platform Manage/Scali on clusters, particularly Dell M600 and M610 blade servers. The training videos are for Aramco HPCC team's internal training and reference.

• Performed documentation verification / testing of documentation for the latest 512 Infiniband cluster.

Hardware: DELL PowerEdge 1950, M600 and M610 Servers, Infiniband, Gbit Ethernet.

Software: RHEL 4.x/5.x, Scali (Platform Manage), Cluster Vision OS, PBS (Portable Batch System), Various cluster tools such as xcat, etc.

Project (Web/Mail and DB server setup for PakCyber, in USA):

• Setup the Webmail and DB servers for PakCyber. Setup key based authentication, Firewall, automated backups, restricted user accounts, database restrictions, and monitoring tools. The setup consists of two servers.

Hardware: AMD 64 bit servers.

Software: RHEL5 and CENTOS 5 as base OS on the servers. Various services running on top of this setup: DNS (BIND), FTP (VSFTPd), Web (Apache), Mail server/SMTP (Qmail), Anti-Spam (SPAM Assassin), Anti-Virus (ClamAV), POP and IMAP (Courier), Database (MySQL), Firewall (IPTables), etc.

Project (WebMail and DB server setup for UK based company in USA):

• Setup the Webmail and DB servers for Smart Communications, now running under the name (and) ownership of Autogateway.com . Setup key based authentication, Firewall, automated backups, restricted user accounts, database restrictions, and monitoring tools. The setup consists of two servers.

Hardware: AMD 64 bit Dual core servers.

Software: CENTOS 5 as base OS on the servers. Various services running on top of this setup: DNS (BIND), FTP (VSFTPd), Web (Apache), Mail server/SMTP (Qmail), Anti-Spam (SPAM Assassin), Anti-Virus (ClamAV), POP and IMAP (Courier), Database (MySQL), Firewall (IPTables), etc.

Project (High Availability setup in USA):

• Setup a High Availability setup for www.yellowzip.com, in USA, through PakCyber, Rawalpindi. The setup consists of four (4) servers connected to each other over the network in High Availability configuration, and various telecommunications and networking equipment. Setup key based authentication, Firewall, automated backups, restricted user accounts, database restrictions, and monitoring tools.

Hardware: Dual and Quad-processor Xeon servers

Software: CENTOS 4 as base OS on these servers. Various Linux High Availability technologies : Linux Load Balancers using ldirectord, IPVSadm, Heartbeat, DRBD, etc. The various services running on top of this HA setup: DNS (BIND) running in master/slave mode, FTP (ProFTPd) running in cluster formation, Web (Apache) running in cluster formation, Mail server/SMTP (Qmail) running in cluster formation, Anti-Spam (SPAM Assassin), Anti-Virus (ClamAV), POP and IMAP (Courier) running in cluster formation, Database (MySQL) running in fail-over mode over DRBD, NFS, Firewall (IP Tables), etc.

Project (High Availability Data Center setup in UK):

• Reconfigured the entire High Availability Data Center setup, when it moved from Pakistan to UK, previously running under the name of Smart Communications, now running under the name (and) ownership of Autogateway.com . The setup consists of fourteen (14) servers connected to each other over the network in High Availability configuration, and various telecommunications and networking equipment. Setup key based authentication, Firewall, automated backups, restricted user accounts, database restrictions, and monitoring tools.

Hardware: Various Dell and Acer servers

Software: CENTOS 4 as base OS on the servers. Various Linux High Availability technologies : Linux Load Balancers using ldirectord, IPVSadm, Heartbeat, DRBD, etc. The various services running on top of this HA setup: DNS (BIND) running in master/slave mode, FTP (ProFTPd), Web (Apache) running in cluster formation, Mail server/SMTP (Qmail) running in cluster formation, Anti-Spam (SPAM Assassin), Anti-Virus (ClamAV), POP and IMAP (Courier) running in cluster formation, Database (MySQL) running in master/slave mode, NFS, Firewall (IP Tables), etc.

PUBLICATIONS AND CBTs

Publication 1: [Reference]

Authored the book: “Linux Pocket Reference for System Administrators”, which is download-able free of charge, from my website: (http://www.wbitt.com) . First edition went on-line in Oct/Nov 2002. Currently 5th edition is available. Translated in Spanish by Gerardo Diaz from Buenos-Aires, Argentina, and in Portuguese by Rui Correia.

A widely used and appreciated Linux reference book all over the world.

Publication 2:

Authoring / writing a the book: “Pocket Reference for HPCC System Administrators”. Estimated time of completion is 3 months in total. Work-in-progress document can be provided on demand.

Publication 3: [Reference]

Developed first free Urdu language CBTs on the topic of “Advance Linux System Administration”. (The mode of communication is in Urdu and the computer interface is in English). An internationally known set of CBTs, popular in the world where-ever Urdu and its dialects are spoken and understood. eg. India, Indian and Pakistani communities in USA, UK, KSA, Canada, Africa, Asia Pacific, etc.

Best ranking hits on Google, when searched with “linux urdu cbts”.

Publication 4: [Reference]

Created / Developed CBTs on the topic of “Virtualization”, available on my website http://www.wbitt.com

Publication 5: [Reference]

Developed first free HPCC CBTS in English language, under the title of: "A super computer on every desk!". An internationally known set of CBTs, popular in the world where-ever Beowulf / HPCC /Super-Computers are being setup by professionals and non professionals. (http://www.wbitt.com)

The CBTs cover: Installing an HPCC / Beowulf Cluster on your desktop, using Open-Source Tools, such as Linux, MPI, HPL, etc. Best ranking hits on Google, when searched with “hpcc cbts”.

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION