Biography

Victor is an independent IT contractor with strong Linux background living in Toronto.

His company, GeekIT Consulting Inc., specializes in Linux, and for many years, in the design and deployment of Manhattan’s WMOS (Warehouse Management Open Systems), a supply chain software stack solution by Manhattan Associates. Some of his clients are well known names in the Canadian industry, like LCBO, Shoppers Drug Mart, Home Hardware, and Fujitsu Canada.

Victor is also the founder of the Mississauga Linux User Group, the official LUG (Linux User Group) for Mississauga, ON.

Download my Resume here.

Linux Administrator

Fujitsu Americas, Toronto, ON - Dec 2020 - Dec 2023

• Managed a cluster of 40 WildFly servers on RHEL 7 operating system, hosted on Azure infrastructure with Active MQ as the message broker and Azure SQL Database as the backend.
• Managed and executed daily operational tasks on the Azure cloud platform, encompassing tasks such as resource provisioning, monitoring, troubleshooting, backup and recovery, performance tuning, and patching.
• Automated operational tasks, support, and investigation procedures by developing Bash and PowerShell scripts, leading to significant improvements in efficiency.
• Implemented Ansible via Azure DevOps pipeline for OS patching and configuration management, reducing outage time and streamlining processes.
• Resolved WildFly startup issues allowing the automation of nightly shutdown processes, resulting in substantial cost savings for the company.
• Enhanced application startup by incorporating multiple stage checks in the startup scripts.
• Supported and executed code changes/fixes for multiple Azure pipelines used for database refreshes and code deployment across all environments.
• Provided guidance to colleagues in code development and automation pipeline improvements.
• Configured and maintained Grafana dashboards that used Azure Application Insights and Logs as the primary data source.
• Authored multiple knowledge base articles, providing valuable insights and best practices to the team.

---

WMOS Manhattan Support (Consultant)

LCBO, Toronto, ON - Aug 2019 - Mar 2020

• Created a range of essential infrastructure documents, including server layouts, monitoring indexes, load balancer rule lists, startup script dependencies, and endpoint configurations, to ensure smooth operations.
• Developed several application startup/shutdown scripts for various scenarios, reducing outage windows and enhancing system reliability.
• Implemented monitoring (using SolarWinds) for different application components, configuring email and Slack alerts for timely and efficient issue resolution.
• Streamlined environment loading scripts and automated deployment to lower-level environments using Ansible, resulting in increased efficiency and productivity.
• Authored multiple comprehensive knowledge base articles, previously non-existent, to document best practices and essential information for the team.

---

WMOS Systems Integration Consultant

Home Hardware Stores Ltd - May 2012 - Present

• Spearheaded the initial design, installation, and documentation of all LMS apps on JBoss/RHEL (5.6 through 7.2) to ensure smooth and seamless deployment.
• Designed and implemented load balancing, fail-over, and high availability rules for the core warehouse application and its components, ensuring reliable and consistent operations.
• Configured monitoring for all project apps using WhatsUp Gold (Ipswitch), JBOSS Operations Network, and numerous Bash scripts, enabling efficient issue resolution.
• Constructed a unified system environment profile (in Bash) that loaded application variables and aliases based on the server it was being executed on, streamlining operations, and increasing productivity.
• Introduced an internal forum that served as a knowledge base for the middleware team, facilitating information sharing and improving team communication.
• Developed a start page with links to documents and applications that became a standard launch page for the IT infrastructure/project team, improving accessibility and productivity.
• Authored and maintained a server/environment layout document that was later adopted by the whole IT infrastructure/project team, providing essential information for team members.
• Implemented version control by migrating all middleware code to an on-premises GitLab server, improving code management and versioning.
• Migrated all cron jobs for the lower-level environment servers to a centralized scheduling solution (Rundeck), improving job management and scheduling.
• Converted the server setup and application install processes to Ansible, reducing application installation time from 4 days to just 20 minutes, increasing efficiency, and improving productivity.

---

WMS System Admin

Shoppers Drug Mart - June 2010 - May 2012

• Provided comprehensive support for the Warehouse Management System (WMS) software, including Manhattan’s WM, LM, SCI, and Vocollect, as well as RF scanners, voice picking devices, and printers.
• Administered a diverse range of environments, consisting of 15 AIX servers, 12 HP-UX servers, and 35 Windows servers.
• Conducted weekly patches for applications on all environments, including Windows, Unix, and databases.
• Implemented an Oracle sqlplus wrapper to minimize user errors during vendor patches, which was later adopted as the standard software delivery method for the project.
• Designed and executed the installation and configuration of the business integration application on new environments, complete with build books and support documentation.
• Created a solution to monitor the application, transactions, and database through custom Korn, pl/sql scripts, and HP OVO.
• Designed the logic for a script that managed load balancing, failover, and disaster recovery.

---

Product Support Specialist

Accubid Systems - October 2007 - June 2010

Responsibilities

• Provided product support on the leader software developer for professional electrical, mechanical and structural cabling estimates
• Support included: installation, software removal, troubleshooting and extensive knowledge of the product
• Dealt with MS-SQL installations

Achievements

• Decreased the amount of calls by creating various documentations with instructions for the most common problems. These allowed clients to resolve common issues without having to contact support
• Reduced time when migrating clients by creating a package that allowed the conversion of files when skipping one or more versions. Before the package existed it was necessary to install all versions of the program to sequentially convert the files

---

3Com - Level 2 Tech Support

Siemens Canada - April 2005 - October 2007

Wireless Tech Support

• Provided Tech Support on Wireless and entry level network products (ADSL/DSL routers, APs, switches, wireless switch managers, etc…)
• Setup a forum, chat and product information/start page for L2 technicians resulting into a centralized point of reference for all agents
• Involved in two Six Sigma projects to decrease AHT

Acting Team Lead

• Monitored Queue and assigned calls to agents making sure that SLA level stayed within the requirements

Floor Walker

• Helped agents with questions in regards to process during region take over
• Responsible for solving RMA problems for the whole US and Canadian region (RDR)
• Created a detailed manual of the process above when task was transferred to another department

Level 1 Agent

• Customer Service representative for 3Com call center
• Dealt with RMAs, web registration support and solved order issues
• Point of escalation between Brazilian client’s and service escalation
• Designed a start page for Portuguese agents and a pre-made interactive script page for faster case documentation

• victor@geekit.ca
• Mississauga, ON, Canada