Profileimage by Imran Sheikh Senior IT Consultant (VMware/vCF/vCD/Aria Suite/Red Hat) from Amsterdam

Imran Sheikh

available

Last update: 20.09.2024

Senior IT Consultant (VMware/vCF/vCD/Aria Suite/Red Hat)

Graduation: HTS / BSc
Hourly-/Daily rates: show
Languages: German (Elementary) | English (Full Professional) | Dutch (Native or Bilingual)

Keywords

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Vmware JavaScript (Programming Language) Cloud Computing Linux VMware ESX Servers Ansible Satellites VCloud Virtualization + 4 more keywords

Skills

Senior IT Consultant with extensive experience in the continuously changing complex IT infrastructure. For the last 25+ years, the focus has mainly been on engineering, implementaton, designing and migraiton of Virtualization and Unix/Linux related projects.
  • VMware vSphere, ESXi / vCenter Server (till ver. 8.x)
  • VMware Cloud Foundation / vCF (till ver. 5.x)
  • NSX-T (till ver 4.x)
  • vSAN
  • vCloud Director / vCD (till ver.10.x)
  • Arira/vRealize Suite: Aria Automation, Aria Orchestrator, Aria Operations, Aria Suite Lifecycle, Aria operations for Logs
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (ver. 6/7/8)
  • Red Hat Sattelite (ver. 6.x)
  • Ansible + Tower / AWX
  • YAML
  • JavaScript

Project history

07/2021 - 07/2024
Specialist Infrastructure Development (VMware/vCF/vCD/Aria Suite)
Government Data Center North (ODCN)/DUO

Job description:
As a Senior Projects Consultant, participated in setting up a multi-tenant cloud
environment based on VMware Cloud Foundation (vCF), VMware vCloud Director (vCD)
and Aria Suite for the government/ministries in the north of the country.

* Participate in the detailed design (HLD/LLD) of new multi-tenant cloud environment
based on VMware Cloud Foundation (vCF -> vSphere, vSAN and NSX-T, SDDC),
VMware vCloud Director (vCD) and Aria/vRealize Suite (vRA, vRO, vROPs, vRLI,
vRLCM and VRNI).
* Installation, configuration and troubleshooting of multi-tenant cloud environment in two
data centers/availability zones, this concerns a stretched cluster environment including
a.o. vCF, vCD, Aria Suite, UsageMeter, Chargeback etc..




* Detailed design of vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) for DUO.
* Installation, configuration and troubleshooting of vRNI Platform environment.
* Writing technical Installation/configuration documents for vCF, vCD etc..and DOP's

09/2019 - 06/2021
Senior Infrastructure Specialist (VMware and Red Hat)
LVNL (Air Traffic Control the Netherlands)

Job description:
As Senior Infrastructure Specialist: setting up IT infrastructure/services for the new ICAS
air traffic control system. It concerns VMware vSphere 6.7 and RHEL/CentOS 6.x/7.x
related infrastructure/services.

* Installation, configuration and troubleshooting of new VMware vSphere ver.6.7
infrastructure for the ICAS Dev/Test/Education environment.
* Detailed design (LLD), installation and configuration of 2x Red Hat Satellite servers
ver.6.6 for development and test environments.
* Installation, configuration of various infrastructure services including Ansible Tower,
Pleasant password server, FreeIPA / IDM server etc.
* Creating the standard setup/golden image of RHEL/CentOS ver.6.x/7.x.
* Installation, configuration of RHEL/CentOS ver.6.x/7.x VMs/servers according to
requirements of application developers.
* RHEL/CentOS ver. 6.x/7.x related activities including installations/updates and
troubleshooting
* Updating and creating Ansible playbooks/roles, Bash shell scripts etc.
* Basice Dockers and kubernetes installation/configuration work.
* Writing technical documentation including VMware vSphere, RHEL/CentOS, Satellite
server, Ansible Tower, Pleasenat passeword etc ... and making Visio drawings.

09/2018 - 05/2019
Senior Projects Consultant (VMware and Red Hat)
Staples Solutions Europe

Job description:
As a Senior Project Consultant, participate in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6/7 and VMware
vSphere related infrastructure migration project.

* Design (HLD / LLD), installation and configuration of HPE hyper converged
infrastructure solution (incl. Sizing).
* Design (LLD), installation, configuration of VMware vSphere ver. 6.5 infrastructure
* Migration of 230+ RHEL ver. 6/7 VMs from Paris (Colt / Getronics datacenter) to
Aalsmeer / Eindhoven (KPN datacenter) with a.o. Double Take / Carbonite move.
* Creating migration plans for VMware vSphere workloads between two locations (Paris -
> Aalsmeer / Eindhoven)
* Creating standard setup / golden image of Red Hat Enterprise Linux ver.6 / 7.
* Setup RHEL ver.6 servers according to requirements of application managers.
* RHEL ver. 6/7 related work including installations / updates and troubleshooting
* Setting up Ansible Tower and making Ansible playbooks/roles
* Installation and configuration of Nimble storage and FC switches

02/2018 - 09/2018
Platform Expert (VMWare, RedHat)
Skyguide (Swiss air navigation services)

Job description: As Platform Expert VMware and RHEL, taking part in VMware vSphere and Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 6/7 related infrastructure projects

* Creating High Level and Low Level VMware vSphere infrastructure designs (incl.
sizing).
* Taking part in installation and configuration of completely new VMware vSphere 6.5
infrastructure.
* Creating VMware vSphere workloads migration plans.
* Panning and performing VMware vSphere workloads migration from one location to
other (clusters) incl. legacy workloads.

03/2016 - 12/2017
Senior Virtualization / Linux Consultant
Ministry of Internal Affairs

Job description: As Senior Virtualization / Linux Consultant, taking part in VMware vSphere, vRealize
Automation and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6/7 related infrastructure projects ,

* Taking part in designing, installation, configuration of completely new Government
Datacenter (Overheids Datacenter -ODC) based on VMware vSphere ver.6 and
vRealize Automation ver.6.2. (incl. IaaS, XaaS, blueprints, catalogs, workflows etc..)
* Creating Orchestrator workflows, Puppet modules en Ansible play/playbooks
* Taking part in VMware vSphere 5.5 to 6 upgrade project
* Writing projects related technical documents.
* Testing/Writing P2V and V2V migration scenarios based on Veeam Backup/Replication
and VMware Converter
* Creating/Configuring Red Hat Enterprise Linux ver.6 and ver.7 golden image to be
used by vRealize Automation blueprints
* Assisting operational team with solving VMware and RHEL related complex incidents
* Installation, configuration and updates RHEL 6/7 servers/VM's
* Installation, configuring of Red Hat Satellite Servers 6.1 and 6.2

02/2015 - 11/2015
Infrastructure / Virtualization Designer
Liberty Global Europe Financing B.V

Job description: Creating designs based on functional and non-functional requirements for Virtualization,
VMware vSphere, Private Cloud and Exalogic infrastructure,

* Taking part in creating of VMware vSphere related infrastructure standards and
creating (partly) low level design for new private cloud based on vRealize Automation
ver.6.2.
* Writing technical/architecture documents.
* Gathering functional and non-functional requirements of VMware vSphere and Exalogic
infrastructure which is already in place for crating Low level designs
* Creating ArchiMate infrastructure designs

05/2011 - 12/2014
Senior UNIX/Linux/Virtualization Projects Specialist
Air France / KLM Information Services

Job description: Taking part in VMware vSphere, vCloud Director, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and AIX/
IBM PowerVM related infrastructure projects, such as:

VMware vSphere and vCloud Director/Suite (private cloud POC)
* Designed, Sizing, Installation/Configuration of completely new private cloud
infrastructure. This private cloud is only used for the test, development and acceptance
of Linux related environment/applications for validation purpose only.nd rd
* Writing technical documents to be used by the 2 and 3 line support among other,
Installation/configuration of vCenter Director and its related virtualization
components/infrastructure (for testing purpose only).

Citrix VDI and Hosted Shared Desktop project
* Participating in designing, installation and configuration of Citrix VDI and Hosted
Shared Desktop infrastructure utilizing VMware vSphere.
* Coordinating between the engineering team and business line representatives to
install, configure, test, and publish applications through XenApp and App-V
* Working together with Wintel team to gather requirements to help design and construct
the master images.
* Writing technical documents to be used by the 2nd and 3rd line support among other,
Installation/configuration of Citrix VDI, HSD and Daily Operational Procedures

VMware vSphere upgrade/migration project
* Testing the upgrade/migration scenarios of VMware vSphere from ESX/ESXi 4.1 to
ESXi 5.5
* Creating upgrade/migration and testing documentation and procedures




Creation of Health Check scripts for VMware vSphere infrastructure
* vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) using Perl and Bash shell scripts to perform
some daily health checks and administrative/automation tasks.

VMware vSphere and Red Hat Enterprise Linux
* Designed, sizing, installation, configuration of completely new VMware vSphere
infrastructure. The VMware environment consists of VM's running Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 5/6 guest operating system using Fibre Channel Storage. nd rd
* Writing VMware vSphere technical documents to be used by the 2 and 3 line
support among other, Installation/configuration of vCenter Server, ESX/ESXi hosts,
VM's, disaster/data recovery and troubleshooting.

VMware vSphere, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and AIX nd rd
* Design, Sizing, Planning and advising/helping 2 and 3 line support with migration of
test/development/acceptance environments Lpars related AIX Instances (Lpar, AIX and
Application migration) from IBM p550/p570 to VMware vSphere VM's running Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5/6 guest operating system.
* Converting AIX system check scripts (Korn Shell) to Red Hat Enterprise Linux
compatible scripts (Bash Shell).
* Configuring Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5/6 Golden Image for standard setup.

AIX, VIOS, PowerHA and PowerVM
* Design, Sizing and Configuration of AIX / PowerHA clusters for the new HP-OpenView
application environment.
* Design, Sizing, Configuration and Migration of some 140 Lpars related AIX Instances
(Lpar, AIX and Application migration) from Power 4/5/6 to Power 7 (P740's and P770's)
systems where by also transferring data from ESS SAN storage to VMAX.
* Writing DOP's (Daily Operational Procedures) and technical projects related
documentations.

12/2009 - 05/2011
Advisory Specialist PowerHA/Virtualization
IBM Switzerland LTD

Job description: Some of the main activities:
* Advisory specialist to Argentinean, Czech and Slovenian UNIX teams.
* Participating in major UNIX and PowerHA upgrade/migration projects (also as Team
leader).
* Main developer and focal point of PowerHA cluster setup and testing documentation /
procedures for IBM internal use and Novartis/FDA compliance.
* Design, Sizing, Building of new UNIX environments mainly PowerHA clusters and VIO
Server/clients.

08/2003 - 11/2009
Senior IT. Specialist UNIX 3rd Line Support and Projects
KLM Information Services

Job description: 3rd Line Support and infrastructural projects.
* Check scripts (ksh) design and implementation project. These check script (+/- 180)
checks/test every system at certain time for any misconfiguration/problem and show
the result on the webpage.
* Migration of Lpars related AIX Instances (Lpar, AIX and Application migration) from
p650/p670 to p550/p570.
* Configuration of Logical Partitions (LPAR/DLPAR).
* Installation / Configuration/ maintenance of VIO Server and Micro Partitions/ Virtual I/O.
* AIX Migrations and upgrades (4.2, 4.3 and 5.1 to 5.2/5.3).
* HACMP upgrades from 4.5ES to 5.2/5.3 /5.4(2 node cluster).
* Acceptation and De-acceptation of AIX systems (RS/6000 and pSeries).
* Writing DOP's (Daily Operational Procedures) and technical documentations

10/1999 - 07/2003
Senior IT. Specialist UNIX Projects
KLM Engineering & Maintenance

Job description: Taking part in UNIX infrastructure projects, such as:




MBOX (Document/content Management System for 777 and 747 aircrafts)
* Installation and configuration of AIX, Sun Solaris systems, Documentum, WDK, Enigma
and WebSphere application server for Documentem and writing technical documents
2nd TSM setup of KLM E&M (Tivoli Storage Management)
* Installation and configuration of 2nd TSM server and AIX clients for KLM E&M
department and creating Korn Shell scripts for daily administration.
Default Server
* Setting up 28 C10's identical AIX systems and upgrade of 100+ AIX systems from 4.1
to 4.3 _ML 10
SAP BW (Business Warehouse) test and acceptation environment
* AIX and HACMP installation and configuration for SAP BW requirements.
WebSphere Application Server
* Installation and configuration of the 1st WebSpehere application server for KLM E&M.

07/1996 - 10/1999
IT. Specialist
A-Line B.V

Job description: 2nd line SCO UNIX, Windows NT and Compaq systems support.
* Helpdesk SCO UNIX, Windows NT and Compaq.
* Installation and configuration of SCO UNIX and Windows NT Compaq and HP servers

06/1995 - 06/1996
Hardware Service Engineer
InterSystems

Job description: Repairing, upgrading and configuration of flight arrival and departure systems and
terminals for/on the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

Certifications

VMware Certified Professional - Cloud Management and Automation 2024 [V2] (VCP-CMA 2024)
2024
VMware Certified Professional - Network Virtualization 2024 (VCP-NV-2024)
2024
VMware Certified Implementation Expert - Data Center Virtualization 2021 (VCIX-DCV 2021)
2021
VMware Certified Advanced Professional - Data Center Virtualization Design 2021 (VCAP-DCV Design 2021)
VMware
2021
VMware Certified Advanced Professional - Data Center Virtualization Deploy (VCAP-DCV Deploy)
VMware
2021
VMware Certified Professional - Data Center Virtualization 2021 (VCP-DCV 2021)
VMware
2021
Red Hat Certified Engineer (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7)
Red Hat
2017
Red Hat Certified System Administrator (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7)
Red Hat
2017

Local Availability

Only available in these countries: Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands und United Arab Emirates

Other

https://nl.linkedin.com/in/imran-sheikh-60500a3
Profileimage by Imran Sheikh Senior IT Consultant (VMware/vCF/vCD/Aria Suite/Red Hat) from Amsterdam Senior IT Consultant (VMware/vCF/vCD/Aria Suite/Red Hat)
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