Unix System Analyst, Research Computing Services

Position Overview

Research Computing Services within Information Technologies invites applications for a UNIX System Analyst . This Full-time Fixed Term position is for approximately 24 months (based on length of grant funding), with the possibility of extension.

This position reports directly to the Manager, Systems Engineering for Research Computing Services (RCS). The UNIX System Analyst will primarily support institutional research storage infrastructure.

Other responsibilities will include support and maintenance for a local Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) environment focused on on-demand VM delivery.

The system analyst will also install, upgrade, and monitor software and hardware. The system analyst will primarily be responsible for the installation, upgrading, and monitoring of software related to the storage systems and software related to the IaaS.

The system analyst will work with other RCS system analysts to maintain operating systems, security tools, web servers, data backup / recovery, networking and High-Performance Compute resources for data intensive research.

Position Description

Summary of Key Responsibilities (job functions include but are not limited to) :

• Provide feedback on the design (hardware, software, and networking) of an existing multi-tier storage system.
• Work with the RCS team in technical discussions with researchers, IT Operations and IT security.
• Help develop object storage platform evaluations.
• Install, configure, maintain and manage Ceph and OneFS storage infrastructure and respond to related issues.
• Collaborate on the creation of detailed infrastructure configuration documentation, maintenance procedures, and end-user documentation.
• In collaboration with the RCS team, perform hardware maintenance and changes as required (CPU, memory, IO device upgrades for example)
• Apply software and firmware patches and updates as required.
• Monitor performance and tune as required.
• Manage backup and restore of data storage associated with these servers as required.
• Work with the RCS team to integrate the new storage systems with the RCS ecosystem.
• Work with the RCS team to develop a storage growth strategy.
• Install, confige, maintain and manage virtual machine Linux systems and their environment and respond to related issues.
• Install application software as required.
• Apply software and firmware patches and updates as required.
• Install, configure and maintain necessary storage.
• Monitor performance and tune as required.
• Manage backup and restore of data storage associated with these servers as required.
• Help create and maintain IaaS, Research Data Management, and storage system selection training materials.
• Train other RCS members and researchers on IaaS and storage performance modeling.

Qualifications / Requirements :

• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering required. A combination of technical education and experience will be considered
• Minimum of two years of recent and directly related experience in utility and archival storage
• Minimum of two years of recent and directly related experience in IaaS platform management
• Experience with administration of Linux OS on x86-64 systems
• Strong troubleshooting abilities
• Comprehensive understanding of : Configuration management systems, such as Ansible and Terraform Ceph file system IaaS environments TCP / IP networking RESTful APIs and web servers Computer security practices
• Exposure to : OneFS storage system ECS storage system Globus
• Some programming skills : Scripting languages such as Python, Perl, and Bourne Shell
• Experience with NFS, CIFS, CephFS, and S3
• Ability to produce concise, readable technical reports
• Ability to manage multiple priorities
• Ability to work independently to carry out assignments and projects
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
30+ days ago