Contact Information
Email
nate.for.hire@natewoodward.org
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/nateowoodward
Skills
Platforms
Linux/UNIX: AlmaLinux, CentOS, RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Solaris
Virtualization: ProxMox, VMware ESXi, KVM, AWS EC2, Digital Ocean
Automation
Scripting: BASH, sh, Python, Perl, Make, awk, sed, regular expressions
Config Management: Salt, Ansible, CFEngine
Programming: C, C++, Java
High Availability
Redundancy: DRBD, MariaDB replication, conntrackd Clustering: Gluster, keepalived, corosync, pacemaker Monitoring: Nagios, Check_MK, Opsview
Security
Standards: PCI DSS, SOC2, CIS
Authentication: Single sign-on (SSO),
Kerberos, Active Directory,
CAS, Cosign, Keycloak, PAM
Hardening: iptables, firewalld, OSSEC, Wazuh
Scanning: Nessus, Qualys, ClamAV, chkrootkit, rkhunter, ccsrch
Logging: Graylog, ELK/ElasticStack
Miscellaneous
Tools: git, Gradle
Protocols: HTTP, FTP, DNS, DHCP, LDAP, SMTP, TLS
Daemons: Apache, Tomcat, vsftpd, ProFTPd
Documentation: MediaWiki, dokuwiki, markdown
Education
University of Minnesota Duluth
Sep 2006 – May 2010
B.S.: Applied Physics
Minor: Mathematics
GPA: 3.7 / 4.0
Experience
Linux Systems Administrator
The Connection | Jul 2013 – present
- Wrote and modified various command line ETL and database management processes.
- Managed a corporate network with many subnets and VPNs using Fortigate firewall devices in an HA setup.
- Set up MariaDB in a master-replica configuration and migrated some Informix databases to it.
- Replaced our centralized logging system with a solution built from Graylog, ElasticSearch, Wazuh, and Grafana, saving the company $60k.
- Standardized and automated our server build and configuration procedures with a lot of scripting.
- Implemented a robust backup solution using Restic, with replication to an offsite data center and easy rotation of air-gapped backups.
- Migrated air-gapped backups to Wasabi, an AWS S3-compatible cloud storage solution.
- Improved our monitoring coverage with custom CheckMK service checks, then proactively detected and addressed issues before they impacted production.
- Centralized user account management with SSO technologies such as CAS, Kerberos, LDAP, and AD.
- Migrated ~35 physical servers to a VMware ESXi environment, which saved on hardware costs and improved our system management capabilities.
- Automated countless repetitive tasks to increase productivity and eliminate issues due to human error.
- Performed routine maintenance activities such as system patching, software upgrades, and server builds.
- Documented all of the above and kept the docs current.
- Managed and coordinated the on-call rotation.
Systems Administrator
CCGB, Penn State University | Aug 2012 – May 2013
- Supported student and faculty researchers by providing desktop support and systems troubleshooting.
- Increased data storage capacity, expanding a NAS by 30TB.
Linux Systems Administrator
The Connection | Jul 2010 – Aug 2012
- Deployed and maintained roughly 30 Linux servers.
- Created failover procedures using replication technologies in order to minimize downtime during maintenance windows.
- Implemented PCI DSS controls such as patch management, system hardening, intrusion detection, file integrity monitoring, and network vulnerability scans.
- Eliminated many issues due to human error by documenting new and existing operating procedures on an internal wiki.
Physics Research Assistant
Physics Department, UMD | Jun 2008 – May 2010
- Created a script to execute jobs in parallel, which reduced the runtime of a wide range of computationally intensive algorithms, in some cases from days to hours.
- Gained experience collaborating with people across the globe.