Tahir Rafique
Piscataway,NJ
Summary
Systems Operations Engineer with over 6 years of dynamic expertise in virtualization (Vmware), orchestration, monitoring and Cloud Computing. Dexterous in diverse Linux Operating Systems, including Redhat/CentOS 6, 7 and 8, specializing in installation, configuration and maintenance. Expert in networking, user and file management, disk and storage administration, as well as performance optimization and troubleshooting. Expertise in DevOps tools including Ansible, Ansible Tower, and Git/BitBucket, along with familiarity in Docker and Kubernetes.
Overview
6
6
years of professional experience
Work History
Systems Operations Engineer
Bank of China
New York, NY
02.2022 - Current
- Managed a hybrid production environment featuring a blend of AWS Cloud and on-premise virtualization (ESXi, vSphere) environment, with a substantial portion allocated to each platform.
- Administered AWS resources including EBS volumes, EC2 instances, S3 buckets, and DNS records; performed tasks such as EBS attachment, snapshot creation, volume extension, filesystem creation, and mounting.
- Proactively migrated instances to alternative families using CloudFormation templates in response to instances consistently reaching thresholds, being over-provisioned, or experiencing unnecessary cost escalation due to resource over allocation.
- Installed,configured and upgrade SSM, SolarWinds, AWS drivers, CrowdStrike, and Splunk using AWS documentation in Systems Manager, ensuring smooth operation of monitoring and security tools.
- Monitored alerts on SolarWinds and took appropriate actions to remediate issues based on severity, minimizing downtime and service interruptions.
- Developed and implemented AWS reporting jobs for various purposes including tracking instance shutdowns, monitoring AWS certificate expiration, and identifying
- Built and decommissioned AWS resources such as EC2 instances, S3 buckets, EBS volumes, and load balancers, adhering to best practices.
- Resolved issues related to EC2 instances' health checks and instances not coming up after configuration changes, ensuring high availability of services.
- Implemented and maintained robust patching protocols for EC2 instances through AWS Systems Manager Patch Baseline documentation, orchestrating scheduling, pre-checks, patch application, and post-checks, ensuring heightened security measures and regulatory compliance while mitigating potential system vulnerabilities and risks.
- Managed load balancing using ELB and replica set with Autoscaling, utilizing cloud watch matrices for increased visibility in the cloud environment.
- Utilized Ansible for automation, creating playbooks for service management, storage management, patching, gathering facts, and conditional execution.
- Implemented version control using GIT for dual-track documentation sharing in Linux system management.
- Leveraged CI/CD pipelines to systematically enhance system performance, ensuring efficient and automated deployment processes.
- Managed end-to-end Virtual Machine operations, including provisioning, deployment, and configuration.
- Diagnosed and resolved memory issues by optimizing swap space and configuring persistent boot settings, ensuring server uptime and providing direct user support for Linux systems, effectively enhancing system performance and user experience..
- Optimized storage infrastructure by configuring and managing PVS, VGS and LVS through adept utilization of LVM commands.
- Experienced in performance monitoring, system usage, and load optimization, including kernel parameter adjustments.
Linux Admin
Sephora
, CA
02.2019 - 01.2022
- Managed full server lifecycles, including deploying, provisioning, troubleshooting, maintenance, experimentation, and decommissioning.
- Executed Linux server patching and job scheduling efficiently using Ansible Tower.
- Resolved kernel panic issues post-patching, fine-tuning, and upgrades, ensuring server uptime.
- Played a key role in managing servers, providing expert support for DNS, DHCP, FTP, NFS, HTTP, and Apache in Linux environments.
- Improved Linux system reliability with NIC bonding for fault tolerance, load balancing, and redundancy.
- Implemented efficient file-sharing infrastructure on Linux using NFS, involving server directory mount points creation and Autofs integration for persistent mounts.
- Implemented customer-tailored RAID levels to optimize performance and redundancy.
- Streamlined Linux operations via customized BASH scripts, showcasing automation proficiency and skillful system management.
- Managed Linux user accounts and groups, ensuring precise privilege assignments for a secure and organized system environment.
- Developed cron jobs for regular and automated data backups, ensuring data integrity and minimizing risks of loss.
- Hardened operating systems using iptables and filesystem ACLs
- Proficient in source code management tools, including GIT and GitHub.
- Excellent in coordination with teams, adhere to corporate standards, change management processes, and work to improve IT standards and policies.
Linux Analyst
Tiktok
, NY
11.2017 - 01.2019
- Conducted detailed analysis of system log files, employing advanced methodologies to identify and address potential issues
- Systematically interpreted logs to facilitate efficient issue resolution, ensuring stable systems, and maximizing uptime.
- Administered services, packages, and fine-tuned software deployment processes to improve the overall efficiency of the system.
- Monitored and responded promptly to user requests, showcasing strong troubleshooting skills for timely issue resolution.
- Provided comprehensive technical support for computer systems, proactively addressing complex software and hardware challenges.
- Collaborated with vendors to procure critical hardware components, ensuring seamless compatibility and reliable performance.
- Managed user and group accounts, handling tasks such as creating, modifying, and removing users. Also, efficiently managed permissions based on individual requests.
- Implemented and enforced security policies and best practices.
- Automated RHEL 6, 7, and 8 installations using PXE server and Kickstart bootstrap, showcasing proficiency in streamlined Linux provisioning.
Education
Master's Degree -
University Of Sindh
Pakistan12-2012
Skills
- Cloud Platforms: AWS (EC2, S3, EBS, CloudFormation, ELB, AWS CLI, Systems Manager), Resource groups and tagging
- Virtualization Technologies: ESXi, vSphere
- Monitoring and Management Tools: SolarWinds, AWS Systems Manager, Splunk, CrowdStrike
- Automation and Configuration Management: Ansible, Terraform, CI/CD Pipelines
- Containerization: Docker
- Version Control: Git
- Scripting and Automation: Shell scripting, Boto3
- Patch Management: AWS Systems Manager Patch Baseline, Patching schedules
- Infrastructure Management: Provisioning, Deployment, Configuration
- Performance Monitoring and Optimization: Kernel parameter adjustments, Memory optimization, Load optimization
- Security and Compliance: Rapid7, Vulnerability management Qualys
- Storage Infrastructure Management: PVS, VGS, LVS, LVM commands
- Networking: DNS Management, Load Balancing, Autoscaling
- Incident Response and Troubleshooting
Timeline
Systems Operations Engineer
Bank of China
02.2022 - Current
Linux Admin
Sephora
02.2019 - 01.2022
Linux Analyst
Tiktok
11.2017 - 01.2019
Master's Degree -
University Of Sindh
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