Short term contract to virtualised a small environment consisting of 2 * v240 Veritas HA cluster, 2* V120) onto two T2000 servers using Sun storage level entry storage array.
The design and implementation I was able to do remotely and submit the proposals to the client.
The implementation was carried out without any major issues.

The main requirement of this contract was to design and implement the migration of two production Veritas clusters onto new platforms with SAN storage and network redundancy. This design had to take into account that the legacy servers were using old versions of solaris/veritas/oracle SCSI storage and had no network redundancy. (Apart from using HA failover).
It was my responsibility to audit the new hardware make recommendations for additional equipments network and fibre cables as well as SAN switches and then configure and connect the new hardware together. To arrange for the migration of existing Veritas licences.
As this cluster was in the DMZ an understanding of firewalls and network security was required.
The second requirement was to rebuild the existing jumpstart server to handle both Solaris 9 and Solaris 10 platforms.
All work had to be documented to EDF standards and change control strictly adhered too.
The third requirement was to assist in migrating other sun servers to new platforms and cabinets these included multiple platforms of V240/V880/V490s
The fourth requirement was to be part of the on call rota supporting Sun Solaris platforms as well as VMS and TRU64


Achievements

• Provided Sun Solaris 8/9/10, consultancy and 3rd level support for Solaris/HPUX/TRU64 and VMS platforms
• Successfully Migrated 2* V880) Solaris 8 Veritas v3.2 SFHA oracle 8i cluster to Solaris 9 Veritas v5.1 with Sun SAN storage and network redundancy, with a fullback plan in place in case the new cluster failed.
• Rebuilt the existing jumpstart server as a JET server and migrated existing packages/legacy scripts to use JET.
• Added remote console access to all sun servers on a dedicated separate network
• Built a new Solaris 9 and Solaris 10 Veritas V5.0 cluster for the migration of the legacy NFS cluster, with SAN storage and network redundancy. The migration did not go ahead due to business constraints on the amount of downtime required before the end of the contract.
• Documented the migration of both Veritas clusters
• Documented how to use JET for EDF server builds
• Documented how to use Veritas cluster manager and Veritas CLIs.
• Performing daily Unix/VMS Administration tasks and providing solutions in
• Closely working with the other departments to ensure that there were no enterprise problems.
• Provided Unix and VMS Technical support to other departments
• Closely working with the DBA,s and other departments
• Maintaining Systems to defined SLA’s and ensuring that appropriate support and capacity planning arrangements were in place.
• Supported and maintained the Tripwire monitoring tool
• Supported and maintained the use of sendmail to send alarms
• Supported and maintained Big Brother monitoring software.
• An understanding of shell script writing is required in this position

This is a contract position with CC to provide my services as a Solaris 10 Design Analyst for their client BT
The scope of this project is to consolidate existing BT applications into a virtualized environment using Solaris 10 container (zone) technology. The virtualized environment currently consists of production and development Solaris platform farms of T2000 and V490 platforms, (approx 50 T2000 and 20 V490s servers)
The project objectives are too engage the BT owners of the applications that are to be migrated and design a complete end to end process.



Achievements

• Lease with many departments within BT and make sure that approval is given at each stage.
• Write the application migration documentation based on the existing systems and design the new virtualised environment.
• Write the test documentation so that the application can be tested at all stages.
• Configure sun Solaris virtualised environments (zone & LDOMS) including network and storage (EMC storage)
• Configure sun Solaris Virtualised environments for VCS SFHA environments
• Engage various BT departments to install and configure the required application network connections
• Acting Team Leader for most of the project so far leading a team of 5 Design analysts as well as working on my own projects.
• Test the application in the virtual test environment
• Implement the applications into the new virtual production environment

Working in the UNIX support 3rd line team, my initial objectives were to administer the installation and configuration of Sun/HP Platforms as well as provide support and consultancy. I then transferred into the pre-production team and due to changes within 3 this was later merged with the newly formed UNIX support team, I was then asked to manage the pre-production infrastructure which was created so that full end to end testing could be achieved prior to any release into the production environment. I was then asked to system managed the pre-production environment as well as continue with the production environment.

My initial objectives were to install and configure the newly formed Pre-Production environment ready for application loading and end to end testing. This included the network/storage (san + local) design using HP XP storage arrays.
When all the initial builds were complete, I became primary responsible for the pre-production environment which consists of approximately 150 Sun servers and 20 HP servers. This work is now shared out between other members of the Unix Support team working on Production and pre-production servers.
Oracle was the main Database application and it was deployed on standalone servers /Veritas (SUN) clusters HA/RAC9i and HP service guard clusters, my responsibility was to install and configure these systems and then to assist the DBA, s in trouble shooting any problems.

Achievements

• Responsible for the building of Pre-production Sun/HP servers at Manchester DC (Solaris/HPUX/Linux)
• Responsible for Veritas cluster configuration and installation
• Responsible for building 100+ Sun servers at Manchester DC for remote application loading & testing
• Built the entire Sun Solaris Pre-Production UNIX Environment including Veritas Clusters
• Unix system administration (HPUX Versions 11.*, Sun Solaris Versions 8/9) and Solaris 10
• Responsible for HP service guard installation and configuration
• Responsible for the day to day administering of both sun and HP servers
• Develop procedures for infrastructure builds, operations and support
• Create and execute fault resolution and support policies and procedures
• Install and operate system monitoring tools
• Performance tuning, capacity planning and trouble shooting
• Executing system upgrades and patch applications
• Develop knowledge of current and future technology methods
• An understanding of shell and Perl scripting was required for this position
• Liaise with 3rd party vendors in supply, installation and configuration of system platforms.
• An understanding of Network backup, recovery and security was required for this role
• I have configured and installed Sun clusters 3.1 for evaluation and test requirements
• Supported the installation of Linux servers
• Develop procedures for infrastructure builds, operations and support
• Create and execute fault resolution and support policies and procedures
• Install and operate system monitoring tools
• Performance tuning, capacity planning and trouble shooting
• Executing system upgrades and patch applications
• Adhere to best practices/ perform quality assurance and keeping to agreed SLAs.
• Develop knowledge of current and future technology methods
• An understanding of shell and Perl scripting was required for this position
• An understanding of HP OVO was necessary for position.
• Adhering to Change Management procedures any unscheduled down time would have an impact on the business
• Responsible for the design and implementation of the Pre-Production Sun and HP servers.
• Responsible for the day to day administration of LDAP and DNS and to troubleshoot/resolve any problems.
• I was expected to produce word documents and excel spreadsheets when necessary e.g. for project managers/Design engineers and for senior management.
• I also to overview design documents e.g.: storage requests/Veritas cluster configurations/oracle file system design before they are for implantation.

Short term contract