Shannon Prickett
Phone: (925) 246-5837 Email: shannon.prickett@gmail.com
Linux System Administrator
Linux / OpenBSD / Perl / Python / Java / Solaris
Experienced system administrator with a focus on high-availability production environments. Competent and calm troubleshooter.
11 years experience in web Unix/Linux ecommerce environment administration and maintenance
6 years of Java development in a Unix environment
11 years of operational support of production systems
7 years experience with Java Servlet Engines and Apache
8 years experience with high-availability web clusters and application servers, including fail over mechanisms
8 years experience with code release management, source control, bug-tracking and content management systems
12 years of Perl Shell Scripting
4 years as a production Oracle DBA
5 years as a production MySQL DBA
4 years as a production Postgres DBA
System Administration Skills:
Expert in: Ubuntu Linux, Debian GNU/Linux, OpenBSD, OpenSUSE Linux, RedHat Linux, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server,
Apache, Nagios, qmail, postfix, Big Brother, BIND, Heartbeat, JBoss,
Tomcat, Bacula.
Competent with: Solaris Unix, FreeBSD, NFS, REST, Samba, SNMPD, VRRP, Cisco IOS,
Iptables, Ipvsadm, Mon, NTP, Sendmail, Exim.
Relational Database Administration:
Expert in: PostgreSQL Database Administration, MySQL Database Administration, Oracle Database Administration.
Administrative Tasks:
Expert in: User account birth to death cycle, Operating System loading and configuration, Installation and configuration of monitoring and managing software, System monitoring and ongoing management, Hardware and software troubleshooting, System deploy planning, Network security planning and auditing..
Software Development Languages:
Expert in: Bourne Shell and derivatives, HTML, Perl, SQL.
Competent with: Python, C, Java, SGML, XML.
Software Development Tools:
Expert in: Perforce, Concurrent Versions System [CVS] repository, Vi editor, GNU Compiler Collection, Gmake (GNU Makefile utility), xUnit (unit testing frameworks).
Competent with: Ant, Emacs editor, IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans IDE, XP development methodology.
Employment History:
Manager of Technical Operations
Playfirst: Casual video game development, production and publishing. Production environment architecture, planning,
purchasing and implementation. (San Francisco, CA) February 2008 - Present
Attained 99.9% uptime without exemption for scheduled maintenance by optimizing release process.
Decreased bandwidth costs 50% by deploying and managing CDN vendor.
Reduced time spent archiving and restoring data by 75% by deploying Bacula infrastructure.
Senior System Administrator
Playfirst: Casual video game development, production and publishing. Production environment system administration, database
administration, software engineering, corporate infrastructure IT. (San Francisco, CA) January 2006 - February 2008.
Decreased resolution time for user issues 75% by deploying and customizing Request Tracker.
Enhanced network control by replacing consumer WAP with OpenBSD firewall.
Reduce visits to the colocation facility 90% by deploying serial console server.
Senior Systems Engineer
MoodLogic: Music identification and categorization service. Production environment system administration, database administration, software engineering, corporate infrastructure IT, data analysis and reporting. (San Francisco, CA) May 2005 - January 2006.
Secured 25+ production systems by automating deployment of security updates.
Protected integrity of 2TB of data by deploying JBOD server.
Senior Systems Engineer
Ticketweb: Online and box-office ticket sales and support for international venues. Production environment system administration, software engineering, corporate infrastructure IT. (San Francisco, CA) June 2004 - May 2005.
Increased audience for weekly newsletter 400% by automating generation and sending.
Enhanced engineer productivity 40% by migrating development work flow from Teamtrack to Jira.
Cross trained 4 peers in Unix skills through one-on-one mentoring.
Senior Computer Specialist
University of Washington: Library ITS group that provides computing services for UW libraries. Administrated high-availability Linux server cluster and designed Linux cluster hosted software. (Seattle, WA) Feb 2003 – June 2004.
Provided 100+ remote users with access to research databases by developing Perl programs to forward valid connections.
Enabled use of campus authorization infrastructure by programming Java objects.
Documented 20+ procedures by establishing and evangelizing collaborative wiki repository.
Cross trained 5 peers in Linux skills through one-on-one mentoring.
Provided 24x7 always-on web hosting environment by deploying Linux Virtual Server applications and heartbeat fail-over mechanisms.
Reduced response delay to environment issues by 75% by establishing monitoring and alerting systems.
Saved four hours of maintenance a month by automating deployment of updated RPMs to environment.
Protected application environment by tracking security errata and updating systems.
On-Call System Administrator
Walt Disney Internet Group: Hosting company for all Disney web commerce and presence other than parks and resorts. Operationally monitored, maintained and administrated servers providing web publishing infrastructure. (Seattle, WA) Feb 2002 - Feb 2003.
Responded to needs of thousands of users for web-mail system in resource-starved conditions by managing off system data backups.
Reduced time required to document shift activities by 75% for operational staff by creating automated log parsing process.
Unified operational procedures by serving on committee to adopt ITIL methodology.
Enhanced interdepartmental coordination through deployment of help desk software.
Eliminated errors and improved alert response times by updating documentation wiki.
Supported schedule and staffing transitions by working additional unpaid hours.
Minimized impact of outages by coordinating inter-group communications, distilling postmortem reports and propagating lessons learned to stakeholders.
Network Administrator
Freelance. Hosted four sites for customers, contracted to Seattle Mortgage Company. (Seattle, WA) Oct 2001 - Feb 2002.
Provided web access to email by learning and deploying the HORDE application suite.
Published DNS records for a dozen zones by configuring BIND and djbdns.
Reduced client software licensing costs by migrating ASP applications from IIS platform to Apache on Linux.
Lead System Administrator
Tenzing Communications: Airborne Internet service provider. Managed production environment, developed Linux software, and tested software for quality. (Seattle, WA) Feb 2000 - Oct 2001.
Built production environment by deploying 20 Linux and 6 Solaris systems.
Automated install of field units by implementing robust remote unattended system image installer.
Protected production environment by creating Operations group, establishing escalation procedures and providing on-call coverage.
Ensured continuity of process by leading team of 4 system administrators.
Launched first in-air email service by developing components and administrating ground production systems.
Deployed high-availability Oracle server on Veritas Clustering Server.
System Administrator
Voicestream Wireless [now T-Mobile Wireless]: International cell phone provider. Administrated production environment Unix systems and high-availability databases. Developed HP-UX software. (Seattle, WA) Apr 1999 - Feb 2000.
Generated data warehouse by scripting call record parsers.
Undertook promotion to production database administrator by taking Oracle and Ingres DBA courses.
Optimized billing system database response for customer care representatives by overseeing three major schema updates.
Attained on-call production environment Unix system administrator position by seeking tutoring from system administrators.
Reduced frequency and severity of production environment outages 75% by serving on change-control board, evaluating and coordinating changes to the production environment.
Software Developer
Western Wireless: National cell phone provider. Operated and monitored systems. (Issaquah, WA) Nov 1997 - Apr 1999.
Increased speed of SIM provisioning 10x by scripted automation of procedures.
Reduced number of off-hour escalations 40% by tuning monitoring tools.
Improved co-worker's Unix skills 50% by peer mentoring.