Resume
Here is Andy’s resume in pdf format or word format.
GITHUB:
Here are some of my contributions to projects around the internet: https://github.com/clubanderson
Work Sample:
Here is a short blurb about work I recently completed for a client.
For one specific cloud-related project I have used Amazon Web Services hosting API’s to create a hosting migration tool that converts Linux VMWare images (RHEL) to Amazon Instances. The difficulty in doing this is that
1) there is no tool (available via AWS or privately) to do this for Linux images, it only exists for windows (probably due to the need for AWS to compete with Azure).
2) AWS does not allow for a terminal session (much less ssh) until a system/instance is fully booted (passes the mounting of storage – ephemeral or static, network interfaces connected, etc).
3) AWS does not allow customized kernels, you must use one of theirs (AKI’s).
In this case I needed to use PV-GRUB aki (32 or 64 bit) to attach a boot-able image. Since most VMWare images are not typically built with this in mind, I needed to re-arrange the mount-points and allocation of space to accommodate the amazon reference architecture and standards. I converted each of the disks using ‘dd’ (native linux disk imaging tool) to strip out any VMWare proprietary hooks. Once converted down, the images could be uploaded to AWS S3 buckets. Next, I needed to attach the buckets in the right order (8 disks, 8 different mount points) so they could be recognized by PV-GRUB and not rejected (leading to an unrecoverable abend and thus needing to re-tool and retest). It took me several long weeks to meet the requirements of this project. The process needed to be repeatable as well. I created bash and python scripts, puppet/chef/ansible cookbooks, along with build/release automation tools (CA’s Nolio/ITKO) to automate the process. I also created REST interfaces (later I used these REST interfaces to build a web interface/form that a consumer/customer would use to trigger this process with variable information) to automate and test the conversion process. In the end I was able to make the process repeatable from VMWare target to AWS Instance boot-able image consistently.
I documented the process, the way to use the command line and web interface, and the test cases so that the tool could be used and supported/enhanced over time. I used GIThub to store and version the code for this project. This solution made it possible for the company to retain it’s investment in dozens of pre-packaged virtual image solutions – building upon the investment made instead of re-packaging from scratch on yet another new platform.