Author Image

Greetings, My name is Brian

Brian Rogers

DevOps / Systems / Linux Engineer

I am a passionate DevOps engineer with over 10 years of working experience. I love working with containers to make development workflows painless and efficient.

Leadership
Team Work
Systems Thinking
Training and Documentation

Skills

Docker
Docker

Capable of deploying, managing application on Docker and Docker-compose. Experienced in writing dockerfiles and orchestration templates
Linux
Linux

Linux has been my primary OS for over 10 years. I know the OS inside and out and I’m usually anticipating a patch or two.
Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing

Worked with most of the major clouds such as AWS, Azure, GCP etc. Most of my experience lies with the AWS cloud and related products.
Shell Scripting
Shell Scripting

Bash, Zsh, and Powershell are powerful tools and I’m comfortable using them regularly. From container entrypoint scripts, to api automation with CURL, I can always find value to deliver with these deceptively simple tools.
Git
Git

I’ve managed many git repositories in my time. I’m experienced in branching strategies, recovering from a bad commit/merge, and teaching good git etiquette.
Generalist Programming
Generalist Programming

I’ve touched and helped fix C#, Java, Python, Golang, Javascript and more. I’m not a deep expert in any language, but I have a good enough understanding of each to be effective at a mid-level in about 6 months.
Computer Hardware / Bare Metal Servers
Computer Hardware / Bare Metal Servers

I’ve always managed and built my own servers. In doing so I have a deep understanding of Linux’s current hardware capabilities, methods of installation, and management of MDADM Raid arrays.
Networking
Networking

In addition to learning about the Linux kernel and how to install on various hardware, I’ve also had the experience trying to achieve enterprise level topology with consumer hardware. In more formal roles, I’ve worked with proxies, load-balancers, VPNs, and other critical network devices and appliances.
Virtualization
Virtualization

I’ve done some pretty radical things with my virtualization configuration. I’ve optimized VMs for both latency and throughput, as well as a mix of both. I’ve also passed through hardware using IOMMU groups to virtual machines for native-like performance.

Experiences

1
Owner/Operator
tucson.social

Jun 2023 - Present, Tucson, Arizona

A social news aggregator and discussion site by Tucson for Tucson.

Responsibilities:
  • Basically everything involving starting your own business, but with the added difficulty of attempting to be a non-profit!
  • Operate the site and its infrastructure on Oracle Cloud and optimize the spend.
  • Maintain site security with WAF, Proxies, and other technologies to stay ahead of DDOS attacks and other malicious traffic.
  • Market and advertise the site in the local Tucson area.
  • Legal Filings / Financial Disclosures (as required for non-profit status - and usually while consulting a lawyer/accountant)
Cloud Software Reliability Engineer
Aerospike

Apr 2022 - Present, Mountain View, CA (Remote)

A high-performance real-time distributed database.

Responsibilities:
  • Delivered Customer Environments through use of Infrastructure as Code (Packer, Terraform, Ansible)
  • Maintain and Troubleshoot Customer environments using Grafana and Prometheus as well as direct SSH access to the environment.
  • Research and Implement new features for the ACS (Aerospike Customer Managed Services) platform - particularly updating our OpenVPN stack to Tailscale (wireguard).
  • Assist other teams and departments with their Infra as Code, deployment methods, and other areas involving a deep understanding of Operating Systems.
  • Develop new terraform and ansible modules and enhance existing ones. Paricularly enabling and configuring cloud agents that enhance IO performance.
  • Improve monitoring thresholds to increase system visibility and reduce alert fatigue.
  • Drive enhancements to our reliability by investigating cross-cloud solutions, improving high availability architecture, and increasing guardrails around operations through automation.
  • Last, but certainly not least, perform manual and automated operations as needed for customers.
2
3
Senior/Lead DevOps Engineer
Propstream

Apr 2021 - Apr 2022, Lake Forest, CA (Remote)

One of the premier real-estate data tools for investors.

Responsibilities:
  • Maintain, Fix, and Improve legacy infrastructure through use of Infrastructure as Code (IAC), well defined image pipelines, and enhanced management capabilities.
  • Lead a team of contracted DevOps engineers to implement new pipeline patterns, enhance existing tooling, and provide rich templates and documentation.
  • Provide easy-to-use templates, wrappers, and applications to increase team momentum.
  • Automate QA and Development environment tasks to increase reproducibility of issues.
DevOps Engineer
Navex Global

Jun 2019 - Apr 2021, Lake Oswego, OR

Navex Global is a leader in integrated compliance, risk, and ESG software.

Responsibilities:
  • Maintain code compilation and deployment pipelines built in TeamCity, Octopus Deploy, and AWS Codepipeline.
  • Migrate local/teamcity build processes to cloud infrastructure (codebuild/codepipeline)
  • Build and Maintain “legacy” containers for use by TeamCity. These were windows containers with particularly old versions of .NET framework that doesn’t typically support container runtimes.
  • Lead a front proxy project built on Envoy with future service-mesh adoption in mind.
4
5
Incomm Digital Solutions

Nov 2015 - Jun 2019, Portland, OR

Formerly known as Giftango and then Incomm Digital Solutions before being integrated into Incomm proper. Our business unit delivered unique turn-key api solutions for stored value products.

Systems Engineer

Jul 2017 - Jun 2019

  • Aid development teams in the implementation of Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment using various technologies.
  • Implement Hashicorp Consul in each of our environments as a service fabric and service discovery layer.
  • Plan and execute large SQL and RAVENDB migrations.
  • Implement HashiCorp Vault to integrate, automate, and secure secret and credential rotation.
  • Also utilize HashiCorp Vault to serve as an internal Certificate Authority allowing for mTLS and easy-to-use pki infrastructure.
  • Work with Product and Development teams to prepare environments for upcoming changes and new services/products.
Application Support Specialist

Nov 2015 - Jul 2017

  • Maintained the stability of high value production systems through robust monitoring, alerting, and change control processes.
  • Support the implementation of Continuous Delivery and Deployment.
  • Develop SQL and powershell scripts to fix common customer data issues.
  • Provide data to operations teams as requested to acheive business goals.
  • Support and train other team members in a continuous learning environment.
Software Configuration Mangement Engineer
NTT America

May 2014 - Oct 2015, Boca Raton, Fl

Formerly known as Vario, this pioneering hosting provider was (in)famous for requiring presidential authority prior to being purchased by NTT.

Responsibilities:
  • Build, maintain, and configure code releases internally and to clients based on client and developer requirements.
  • Automate release process using shell scripting such as BASH and Powershell as well as Bamboo Task engine.
  • Build and automate MSI/EXE installer creation using Installshield, Bamboo, Artifactory, and Jenkins.
  • Create RPM packages for RHEL and CentOS.
  • Work with System Administration departments to outline Puppet and Chef configurations so they are compatible with the rest of Continous Integration.
  • Create custom Atlassian plugins using the Atlassian SDK to provide small, but helpful utilities.
6
7
Level 2 Unix Administrator
Compucom

Nov 2013 - May 2014, Bentonville, AR

Compucom is one of the worlds largest technical workforce solutions provider with tens of thousands of I.T. professionals globally.

Responsibilities:
  • Administrated and managed UNIX and Linux systems within the Wal-Mart home office and store environment.
  • Technologies managed includes Web Services, Clustering, Storage Arrays, Tape Backups, VMWare, XEN, and others.
  • Supported systems with ssh access and common troubleshooting steps and a smidge of personal intuition.
  • Supported hardware dispatches by remotely issuing RAID and other hardware commands while the technician operates.
Release Engineer - SCO and 4690 OS.
L. J. Smith and Associates

Sep 2013 - Nov 2013, Bentonville, AR

One of the oldest and well known high skill technical staffing firms in the Bentonville area, L. J. Smith and associates later rebranded as Kitestring in their effort to become a larger name.

Responsibilities:
  • Facilitated software component releases with Product Management to fix bugs, maintain, and enhance the point of sale software for Wal-Mart Point of Sale Systems.
  • Perform the action of sending the software via both the automated and manual system.
  • Use SSH sessions into problematic systems to diagnose package apply issues.
  • Script and optimize existing systems for easier, less error prone use.
8
9
IPRO Tech

Jan 2012 - Sep 2013, Scottsdale, AZ

One of the first eDiscovery and eReview companies. IPRO software allows small firms to take on big cases with a uniquely usable software suite.

Release Engineer - MSI/Installshield

Feb 2013 - Sep 2013

  • Generate and maintain installation packages using InstallShield and C#.
  • Troubleshoot faulty installer logic.
  • Communicate with development team to gather requirements for installers.
  • Communicate with PM’s to determine unified aesthetic and installer flow.
QA Analyst

Jul 2012 - Feb 2013

  • Tested and assisted in the development of Ipro Tech eCapture software, and eDiscovery product based on SQL and C# and aimed at the enterprise customer.
  • Reviewed and validated bug reports.
  • Assist developers in determining root cause of bugs.
  • Performed manual functional and regression tests prior to high profile releases.
Client Services Representative

Jan 2012 - Jul 2012

  • Support Clients with IPRO Tech software.
  • Performed UAT testing
  • Initial documentation and reproduction of bugs on the Classic software suite.

Projects

Homelab
Hobbyist January 2018 - Present

I’ve done a lot of things on my homelab. From storage servers and NFS to transcoding, crypto mining, hosting, virtual machines, containers, and so much more.

hobby education
Details
My Portfolio Site
January 2018 - Present

The portfolio page you are currently looking at.

hobby education professional
Star
VFIO Gaming Project
January 2018 - 2020

During this time, I was deeply experimenting with VFIO and IOMMU. I was daily driving a VM rather than the host machine. This allowed me some unique experience in regards to VM optimization that not a lot of professionals have.

hobby education

Achievements

Graduation