Bill Swingle

Unix Systems Administrator

Contact Information

[ Full address on request ]
San Francisco, CA

email: unfurl AT dub DOT net

Note To Employers: I am not currently considering other employment.




Objective

A position as a Senior Network/Systems Administrator that lets me utilize my extensive administration experience and team management skills.

Summary

Unix systems and network administration are my primary interests. I have extensive experience with multiple UNIX-based operating systems with an emphasis on Linux but also FreeBSD and Solaris, Cisco/Foundry/Force10 networking hardware, system and network security, network design and unix backups. I have experience with high traffic networking including load balancing technology. I use Perl on a regular basis for system administration tasks and am familiar with some C/C++ programming.

I learn new concepts and systems quickly and am receptive to new ideas. I work well alone or in a group and also have experience managing groups.




Technical Experience

Operating Systems:
  • 12 years Linux (SuSE,Redhat,Debian,Slackware,Ubuntu)
  • 10 years *BSD (Emphasis on FreeBSD)
  • 7 years MacOS X (Desktop)
  • 5 years Solaris 2.x
  • Desktop support of Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP

Networking:

  • Complete understanding of TCP/IP, UDP, ICMP
  • Network troubleshooting
  • Server configuration
  • Physical network maintenance and upgrades
  • Basic switch and router maintainence
  • Familiar with Intel's PXE netboot protocol
  • DHCP
  • SNMP
  • IPv6
  • Load Balancing, custom balancers, BigIP's F5
  • MRTG, Cricket

Security:

  • Advanced knowledge of Unix security
  • Secure internet services
  • LAN/WAN security, VPN
  • Firewalls (Juniper Netscreen, IPFilter)
  • KAME IPSEC
  • Encryption (PGP, GnuPG, SSL)
  • SSH (SSH v1, v2 and OpenSSH)
  • Kerberos 5 (Heimdal)
  • S/Key/OPIE
  • Host-based security: OS hardening, disabling or encrypting unsafe network services
  • Security Policy Design, Implementation
  • Network/Host Security Auditing

Software:

  • Apache HTTP/HTTPS servers (versions 1.3.x/2.0)
  • DNS (BIND 4/8/9)
  • Vi, and ViM
  • NFS
  • NIS/YP
  • NTP, ntpdate
  • POP, IMAP, IMAPS
  • PPP (FreeBSD Kernel PPP)
  • SMTP (Postfix, QMail, Sendmail, procmail, majordomo, listserv, mhonarc)
  • Samba
  • Source code control (CVS, RCS, SCCS)
  • X Window System (configuring servers, desktops, application servers, XDM)

Database Administration:

  • MySQL (maintenance, tuning, replication in large environments)
  • PostgreSQL (backups, SSL, ODBC, auth mechanisms)
  • Limited/older experience with Oracle / Sybase

Programming/Scripting:

  • Intermediate level, mostly systems automation and maintenance tasks
  • Perl5
  • Shell scripting
  • Limited C debugging, make

Hardware:

  • All forms of x86 hardware (from laptops to quad Xeon CPU servers)
  • Some DEC/Compaq Alpha hardware
  • Sun SPARC hardware including sun4c/sun4u, Ultra 5/10/60, E450
  • Cisco routers/switches/terminal servers
  • Cyclades and Lantronix terminal servers
  • Foundry Switches
  • Force10 Swouters (FTOS Certified)
  • Juniper Netscreens
  • F5 BigIP's
  • Lots of co-location facility experience, large server installations, racking, power management, etc




Work History

Dec 2004-Present
Systems Administrator
Craigslist, San Francisco, Ca - http://www.craigslist.org/
Job Description:

Member of 6 person system administration team responsible for farm of 500+ servers in 2 data centers running Linux, Apache and MySQL. Entire network serves over 300 million page views to nearly 3 million unique visitors every day.


May 2002-November 2004
Senior Systems Administrator
Nextrials, San Ramon, Ca - http://www.nextrials.com/

Job Description:

As an ASP, Nextrials facilitates EDC (Electronic Data Collection) for clinical trials which are governed by FDA regulations. All aspects of data manipulation and handling are strictly controlled by these regulations and require significant documentation. Environment included FreeBSD servers running Apache with mod_perl and PostgreSQL.

  • Designed, implemented and maintained a multi-tier, fully redundant production network architecture
  • Developed a custom SSL Offloader based on Apache's mod_proxy
  • Extensive formal planning and documentation for all activities due to regulatory nature of Nextrials' business
  • Day to day management of a team of systems administrators
  • Responsible for company-wide systems and network security
  • Directly handled all equipment negotiations and purchasing
  • Designed system for configuration file management based on CVS
  • Implemented AMANDA backup system
  • Designed a Postgres backup scheme that meets FDA regulation 21-CFR-11 for handling data
  • Participated in design/implementation of network-wide resource monitoring and graphing system (Gremlins)
  • Kept detailed daily worklogs often used for future reference
  • Reported directly to CTO
  • On call 24/7/365

Jan 2001-April 2002
Unix Systems Administrator
Swan Systems, San Francisco, CA - http://www.swansystems.com/

Job Description:

Unix Administration and physical maintainence of large farm of FreeBSD, Linux and Solaris servers, including high-traffic Apache web servers and Oracle Database servers in a co-located data center environment. Installed and maintained several of F5's BigIP load balancers. Network design/deployment.

  • MySQL deployment/maintainence
  • Maintain network-wide AMANDA backup system
  • Implemented FreeBSD netinstall scheme
  • Network design and security reviews
  • Set up internal CVSup mirrors of FreeBSD and internal code for easy propagation.
  • Push new internal code releases to production servers
  • Oracle database snapshots and backups
  • Maintained central root password repository
  • On call 24/7 one week a month

Apr 1999 - Jan 2001
Senior Systems Administrator
BSDi, Open Source Division, Concord, CA - http://www.bsdi.com/

Job Description:

While working for BSDi (formerly Walnut Creek CDROM) I actively maintained all of the servers that handled web, mail, and FTP services for both the cdrom.com and freebsd.org domains. I implemented a secure Kerberos/NIS authentication scheme and developed a security policy including writing new firewall rules and limiting access to sensitive parts of the network. I also oversaw much of the purchasing and deployment of incoming hardware as well as acted as lead for a team of sysadmins.

  • Responsible for day to day management of a team of Jr Systems Administrators
  • System Administration for main *.cdrom.com and *.freebsd.org servers
  • Designed, implemented and remotely maintained entire network for BSDi's San Jose corporate office
  • Responsible for network wide security
  • Hardware acquisition and maintenance
  • FreeBSD software/hardware QA testing
  • Kerberos5 and S/KEY administration
  • On call 24/7
  • Staff member for FreeBSDCon '99 and BSDCon 2000 planning teams.

Jun 1998 - Apr 1999
Unix Systems Administrator
EGL Networks, Bothell, WA - http://www.eglnetworks.net/

Job Description:

Responsible for the implementation and day to day maintenance of a farm of Solaris servers that handled multiple tasks. This included maintenance of servers running the Sybase and Informix databases, Sun's Enterprise Manager, and Vertel's MD-IS software.

  • Daily maintenance of the main EGL web, FTP, DNS and mail servers
  • Design and implementation of a daily backup plan
  • Technical support for in-house programmers
  • Maintenance of security policies throughout the network
  • Source code control, archival, and implementation
  • Hardware maintenance
  • On call 24/7

Jan 1997 - Apr 1998
Network Operations Support Specialist
AZ Starnet, Tucson, AZ - http://www.azstarnet.com/

Job Description:

StarNet is Tucson's largest local internet provider with over 14,000 customers. Performed various system administration duties on several different operating systems including SunOS/Solaris, FreeBSD, and Linux.

  • Develop administration tools and procedures
  • Internal technical support for other employees
  • Monitor physical operation of all equipment, including servers and modem racks
  • Perl/CGI interfaces
  • Listserv management
  • Basic HTML tasks
  • Setup and maintain the Apache web server on several servers
  • Implement and maintain basic security measures
  • Design, implementation & administration of the Tucson Citizen's web servers and StarNet's open server, Treefort.


Jul 1995 - Jan 1997
Systems Administrator / Tech Support
Impulse Internet Services, Santa Barbara, CA - http://www.impulse.net/
Impulse Internet Services is a small ISP that serves a large portion of California's central coast. While working there I developed a strong working knowledge of the SunOS 4.1.x and Linux operating systems. I developed a peripheral understanding of the Livingston Portmaster and it's operating system, ComOS.

Specific Duties:

  • Windows and MacOS customer phone support
  • Basic system administration: SunOS 4.1.4, Linux 1.x



Related Experience

2000-2002
Member, Security Officer Team
The FreeBSD Project - http://www.freebsd.org/
The FreeBSD Security Officer Team acts as the primary contact for FreeBSD Security related issues. The team's main tasks are sending out advisories when there are known security holes and acting on reports of possible security problems with FreeBSD as well as interfacing with other security teams in the Unix community.

1999-2003
Volunteer SysAdmin
The FreeBSD Project - http://www.freebsd.org/
I am part of a small team of people that remote manages a cluster of about 20 machines that serve the non-profit FreeBSD Project.

1999-2003
Source Code Committer
The FreeBSD Project - http://www.freebsd.org/
I was granted code commit rights to the FreeBSD source repository with the purpose of working on security and documentation related issues.

1998-1999
Founding member
Seattle BSD Users Group (SeaBUG) - http://www.seabug.org/

1997-1998
Founding member
Tucson Free Unix Group (TFUG) - http://www.tfug.org/

1997-Present
Co-Founder/Admin
Liquid Magnesium Networks - http://www.magnesium.net/

Liquid Magnesium Networks (LMN) is a non-profit organization that provides an environment where both experienced and inexperienced users can hone their Unix skills at no cost.



Accomplishments
  • Eagle Scout 1994



Articles/Papers



References
References are available upon request.

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