Name : Andrew James Cosgriff.

Qualifications : Bachelor of Computing (Computer Science) at Monash University (Clayton campus).

Contact Details : see my contact information page.

computing skills

summary

System Administration of a variety of Unix operating systems (primarily Solaris and Linux) with advanced use (plus limited system admin experience) of Windows operating systems, on large and small networks. Configuration, maintenance, monitoring and troubleshooting of Cisco routers, firewalls, wireless access points and switches (both IOS and CatOS) in order to provide converged data and voice (IP telephony / VoIP) services across a wide-area network.

network equipment

  • Cisco 800, 1600, 1700, 1800, 2600, 2800, 3600, 3700 and 3800 series routers.
  • Cisco Catalyst 2924, 3550, 3560, 3750, 4500 and 5500 series switches.
  • Cisco PIX and ASA Firewalls.
  • Cisco VPN 3015 Concentrators.
  • Cisco CallManager 3.3, 4.0 and 6.1 driving 7911G through to 7971G IP phones.
  • Cisco CallManager Express 3.3 through to 4.1 running on Cisco 2800 ISRs driving 7911G through to 7971G phones as well as Nokia E-series mobile phones.
  • Cisco Unity Express (AIM and NM) for office voicemail, including development of custom automated attendant scripts.

network services

  • Firewalls (PIX / ASA, Cisco IOS Firewall).
  • VPNs (plain IPSec, Cisco EasyVPN, DMVPN).
  • SNMP monitoring/trend analysis (cricket, cacti, lithium, custom scripts).
  • IP Telephony (Cisco CallManager Express, Cisco CallManager).
  • WAN connectivity (ISDN BRI and PRI / E1 as well as telco-provided "private WAN" services).
  • Routing (RIPv2, some EIGRP, a minor amount of interior BGP).
  • LAN Switching.

unix servers

  • Sun Netra t1, E220R, E250, E450, V440 Ultrasparc servers.
  • IBM x306, x3250, x335, x345, x346, x445, x3250, x3850 Intel servers.
  • HP DL160 G5 Intel servers.
  • Sun Ultra 1, 5 and 10 Ultrasparc workstations.
  • Sun SparcStation 2, 10 and 20 SuperSparc workstations.

unix services

  • Web (Apache, Tomcat).
  • Cache (Squid).
  • Mail (Postfix, Sendmail, Netscape/Sun ONE Messaging Server) and antispam/antivirus (amavis-ng, spamassassin, clamav).
  • Directory Services (OpenLDAP, Netscape/Sun Directory Server).
  • Monitoring (MRTG, Cricket, Cacti, Smokeping, Munin).
  • Collaboration (Confluence, TWiki, DokuWiki).
  • File serving (Samba, NFS).
  • Backup (Legato NetWorker, Amanda).
  • Virtualization (Solaris 10 Zones, Xen, VMWare).

operating systems

  • Unix variants :

    • Sun's Solaris 2.3 through (2.)9 and 10, SunOS 4.1.2-4.1.3. I've deployed production services inside Solaris 10 zones.

    • Linux since August 1992, having used the MCC, Slackware, RedHat and Debian distributions. My most current experiences have been with RedHat Enterprise Linux versions 2.1 through 5, as well as Ubuntu 6.06 through 8.10 (including running production services inside Xen virtual domains on a number of Ubuntu servers).

    • Mac OS X since 10.2 (my current desktop/laptop system of choice), Mac OS X server since 10.3.

    • Digital Equipment Corporation (later Compaq, now HP)'s Ultrix (around 4.2 - 4.4), and later, Digital Unix (originally known as DEC OSF/1 and now known as Tru64 Unix) through versions 3 and 4.

  • MS-Windows : some use of versions 1.0 (!) and 2.0, but more thorough use and limited admin work on versions 3.0 through ME, then onto Windows NT 3.51 through 5.0 (Windows 2000), 5.1 (Windows XP) and Windows Server 2008. Some experience with Windows Small Business Server 2003.

  • MS-DOS : versions 3.3 through 6.22

programming languages

Most recent experience is mainly in shell scripting, with some Perl and PHP. Early work experience with C (under Solaris 2, SunOS 4, Linux, Ultrix, Digital Unix and MS-DOS). Small bits and pieces of Python, Java, Tcl/Tk, Lisp (mostly Emacs-Lisp) where required. A long time ago in (and before) my university days I used to know Pascal, BASIC, some 80386 Assembler and some Eiffel.

work history and experience

January 2006 to present - In Systems - Network Engineer. Tasks/Projects included:

  • Setup of a new office - internet connectivity and IP telephony services deployed on a Cisco 2811 Integrated Services Router including firewall, Dynamic Multipoint VPN services for staff working from home, "normal" VPN services for staff working remotely from elsewhere, voicemail, wireless in the office.

  • Setup of a test lab for staff to experiment with real Cisco equipment while studying for their certifications.

  • WAN reviews, router deployments, IP telephony configuration and maintenance (both Cisco Call Manager and Cisco Call Manager Express), unix consulting for various customers (including Seek).

  • Linux and Mac OS X server deployment for internal e-mail, wiki (using Confluence), CRM, filesharing, system monitoring.

  • Gained various Cisco Certifications (as listed below), and attended various Cisco Networkers conferences.

  • Planning and deployment of Cisco Call Manager 6.1 for one of our customers, between multiple states.

  • Setup of a new startup's network and server infrastructure for both development and production, running on both Solaris 10 and Ubuntu Linux, including collaboration tools (Confluence), version control (Subversion), issue tracking (Jira), databases (PostgreSQL), remote/VPN access, monitoring.

March 2003 to present (part-time, in addition to the AIA work mentioned below) - Fluency Financial, on contract from Bund Media. Work included:

  • Installation and maintenance of an IBM/Intel server running Debian Linux to host e-mail, DNS, DHCP, Perforce for source code control, Oracle 9i (later 10g) database, Apache for web serving, TWiki (and later MediaWiki) for documentation/collaboration, Amanda for tape backups.

  • Configuration and maintenance of a Cisco 800-series router for the office's internet connectivity, including configuration and troubleshooting of a VPN tunnel to a customer site in Poland and VPN serving to employees working from home.

  • Commissioning a new Intel-based server running RedHat Enterprise Linux to replace the aforementioned server.

  • Some maintenance of a remote development server running RedHat 9, later upgraded to RHEL 4 ES.

  • Monitoring of systems using SNMP and cricket.

June 1999 to end of December 2005 - American International Assurance / AIG Life, on contract through In Systems - System Administrator. Tasks/Projects included :

  • System Administration of around 8 Sun machines, running Solaris 2.6 (initially) through to Solaris 8 and Solaris 10 (now). Implementation of numerous services on these machines including internal and external web services, DNS, an HTTP proxy/cache for outbound web access by the company, mailing lists, postfix-based mail delivery POP and IMAP-based mail reading, an LDAP-based Directory Service, SNMP-based monitoring and trend analysis, etc.

  • Migration of most of the above services to numerous IBM/Intel servers running RedHat Advanced Server version 2.1, then on to RedHat Enterprise Linux version 3. Migration of some of these services back to Solaris 10 (making use of its "zones" virtualization features).

  • Pilot and implementation of a Cisco CallManager 3.3 (with PSL, now IPFX for voicemail and queues) IP telephony system of over 500 phones (mostly 7912G and 7960G models) for the company's offices, countrywide. This also encompassed an upgrade of the entire network infrastructure of Cisco switches (from 5500 and 2400XL series to 4500 and 3500 series) and routers (from 16/1700 and 2600 series to 2600 and 2800 series), for which I did much of the configuration (and deployment) work. We later upgraded to CallManager 4.0.

  • Network configuration, maintenance and troubleshooting of the company's Cisco routers (as well as those mentioned above, we also used 3600s and later 3800s), switches, PIX firewalls and wireless access points - currently over 75 network devices spread across the country. Monitoring of said devices (and servers) using cricket as well as custom-built tools.

  • Implementation and (repeated) testing of emergency systems at a Disaster Recovery site.

  • Systems integration work with a small team of programmers to help implement numerous web services (some hosted in-house, and some hosted externally) such as online travel insurance purchasing, and insurance agent reporting.

  • PC support (Linux and/or Windows NT/2000) of a group of around 15 Java Developers and testers, plus a handful of Business Analysts. Occasional backup PC support for the rest of the company (around 180 employees in the head office).

  • Maintenance (along with some of the developers) of the local Java development environment - build scripts, release scripts, the Perforce source code repository, et al.

  • The usual constant keeping-up-to-date with new software, hardware, and security patches/issues.

  • Maintenance of the backups for our NT and Solaris servers, using Legato NetWorker and an IBM 3583 LTO tape library.

  • Limited Oracle 8i DBA work. A small amount of Sybase DBA work prior to our move to Oracle.

  • Attended Cisco Networkers 2005 conference.

Ongoing, since 1998 - System Administration and Maintenance of Bund Media's (externally hosted) server, which hosts a number of Apache-based websites of varying popularity (many using the Movable Type web publishing system), as well as providing SSL/IMAP-based mail, domain hosting, etc to its users.

Monash University Computer Center (now ITS) Networks Group, October 1996 until June 1999 - Network Software Engineer. Tasks/projects included :

  • Planning and implementing the migration of centrally-run web services (for most of the faculties, etc.) from a single server to a cluster of Digital AlphaServers. This also encompassed migrating web services from Netscape's early web server software towards Apache.

  • Working with the web development group, who provided guidance to budding web developers around the university, implemented search facilities, and occasionally did web development work for various departments.

  • Planning and implementation of a new Messaging System (for all Monash University staff, initially), based around standards-based Internet protocols. This included an LDAP-accessible Directory Service, IMAP-based electronic mail, Netscape's Calendar Server (which was tracking the yet-to-be-fully-established internet calendaring protocols), Netscape's Collabra Server (for NNTP-based newsreading). Among other things, an LDAP authentication module for the Apache webserver needed to be partially rewritten (in C) to support our needs. I also implemented basic LDAP search facilities for Emacs (since my preferred mail reader ran under Emacs).

  • Working with 3MU, the Monash University Student Radio Station, to provide streaming internet broadcasts of some of their events, and a few other radio shows.

  • Participation in the duty roster for the Networks Group, which involved occasional (in and out of hours) maintenance work on networking gear (routers, switches, hubs).

  • Attended the 7th World-Wide-Web conference, WWW7.

  • Successfully completed a week's training in the configuration of Fore ATM switches.

February 1994 to October 1996 - System Administrator and Technical Support at Unico Computer Systems (working 4 days a week, while studying, until November 1994). Tasks included :

  • Configuration and maintenance (hardware and software) of around 18 Sun SparcStations (Sparc 2's, 10's and 20's) running Solaris 2.3, including Jumpstart (for automatic installation of Solaris systems over a network), NIS, SunLink X.25 software. This included planning, testing and implementing an upgrade of our live systems at Telstra (carrying real mobile phone traffic) from SunOS 4.1.x to Solaris 2.3.

  • Liaisons with vendors such as Sun Microsystems, for getting various hardware and software problems fixed.

  • Configuration and maintenance (hardware and software) of around 36 PCs in the office running Windows for Workgroups and Windows '95, including Sun PC-NFS and Microsoft TCP/IP network software.

  • Configuration and maintenance (hardware and software) of an ethernet-based network, using "thin" (10BASE-2) and unshielded twisted pair (10BASE-T) ethernet cabling.

  • Configuration and maintenance of UUCP feed, including mail services (sendmail, etc) and news services (INN).

  • Local web server configuration and maintenance.

  • Supporting day-to-day use of unix and dos/ms-windows for approximately 36 employees.

  • Configuration and maintenance of Annex 3 terminal servers (mainly for use as network-accessible serial ports, but have also configured PPP between two annexes over a leased line, for instance).

  • Programming work (while first at Unico) in C under SunOS 4.1.x and Solaris 2.3, writing terminal-based software in the Curses library, as well as X Window System software in the once-popular XView library.

  • Supporting installations of Unico's software for Telstra Mobile Networks, as well as providing phone and physical support when problems occurred.

C/Unix Programming work from mid-December 1992 to end of February 1993, plus 2 weeks in June 1993, at Unico Computer Systems.

academic history

certifications

  • CCNA - Cisco Certified Network Associate
  • CCDA - Cisco Certified Design Associate
  • LCSE - Cisco Lifecycle Services Express
  • FOUNDSE - Cisco Foundation Express for Systems Engineers
  • IPTX - Cisco IP Telephony Express

university

1991-1994 Bachelor of Computing (Computer Science) at Monash University (Clayton).

Subjects Studied: Nearly all Computer Science subjects, Chemistry, and 1st year Mathematics.

year 12 - vce(hsc)

1985-1990 Haileybury College, Keysborough.

Anderson score of 365.
Subjects were : Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, Maths A, English.

other interests & achievements

  • A founding member of the Linux Users of Victoria in 1993 - I was the group's Secretary for the first 2 years, and President for 1 year after that. During that time I gave numerous (and sometimes impromptu) presentations on how to do various things in Linux.

  • An ever-expanding CD collection, covering a fairly wide range of musical tastes - everything from the Father of Bluegrass (Bill Monroe) to the father of Noise (Masami Akita - Merzbow).

  • Keeping up with the works of authors including William S. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, Douglas Coupland, Haruki Murakami, Will Self, Dan Rhodes and Frank Moorhouse among others.

  • Amateur photography - I still have a lot of learning to do, but I have an online gallery which contains photographs of things I consider interesting (live music gigs, signs, old buildings, and so forth). In June 2006 I exhibited some of my work with some fellow photographers. My work has been used for advertisements (for the exhibition, for live music gigs) and in CD booklets.

  • Whilst working at Monash University, I was involved in 3MU, the student radio station - I helped do a few live streaming internet broadcasts of a few events and a few radio shows, and also hosted my own occasional radio show.

  • Various small contributions to Open-Source projects over the years, mostly in the form of rather small feature enhancements to software like GNUS, EXMH and a particular plugin for GAIM, plus a little bit of work on the XEmacs website.

  • A personal website that includes a journal, photos, a weblog of commentary on music I've been listening to, and so forth. I use a popular CMS for my blog, but the rest of my site, including the journal, is hand-coded in PHP (before that, ePerl). My involvement with weblogs earnt me an interview on 3LO (ABC radio) and a photo in The Australian newspaper, both in September of 2002.

  • A good meal, a nice drink, and the company of some good friends.

Referees

(available on demand).