Virtualization Specialist with Focus on Network Virtualization (SDN)

Project overview

Period: As soon as possible, long-term

Volume: Full-time

Project details

Primarily remote, Duisburg

SÜ2: Readiness must be present.

Objective of the Project

Ensuring stable, performant, and highly available operation of the virtualized infrastructure and establishing sustainable 3rd-level support.

The employee's role is to increase the availability of critical services, reduce downtime, and lower operating costs through optimization and automation.

The results will be documented operating processes, a coordinated cluster and network design, and measurable improvements in performance, recovery time, and support turnaround times.

Scope of Services:

Analysis of the existing environment, design and implementation of improvements, operation and optimization of the virtualization platform, and assumption of 3rd-level support tasks.

Soft Skills

Hard Skills

VMware

Cluster Design

vSAN

NSX

Network Support

Hypervisor Operation and Optimization

Maintenance and 3rd Level Support

• Inventory: Recording of the current infrastructure (vCenter, ESXi hosts, vSAN configurations, NSX components, physical network structure, storage topology, monitoring tools).
• Data collection: Gathering performance metrics, capacity data, log files, and existing runbooks.
• Cluster design: Design of cluster architecture, host grouping, HA/DRS strategies, and maintenance concepts.
• vSAN design: Definition of storage policies, fault domains, cache/capacity sizing, and rebuild strategies.
• NSX design: Overlay topology, routing concept, micro-segmentation, and security policies.
• Network integration: Mapping between virtual and physical network infrastructure, VLAN plan, MTU planning, and LACP/Port Channel concept.
• Configuration: Installation/upgrade of vCenter/ESXi, setup/expansion of vSAN cluster, deployment of NSX components, adjustment of physical switches.
• Security measures: Hardening of hypervisors, NSX firewall rules, access concepts, and role/permission assignment.
• Communication: Clear, technical and non-technical communication with operations, network team, and processes.
• Problem Solving: Structured analysis of disruptions and root cause analyses.
• Teamwork: Collaboration with infrastructure, network, and processes.
• Documentation Skills: Creation of understandable runbooks, checklists, and handover documents.
• Prioritization: Ability to separate critical incidents from routine tasks and deploy resources purposefully.
• Customer Orientation: Service-conscious action towards internal stakeholders and users.
• vSphere Administration: Installation, configuration, and operation of vCenter and ESXi hosts
• Lifecycle Management: Patching, upgrades, and compatibility checks.
• Performance Monitoring: Use of tools for monitoring and capacity planning
• Architecture: Design of highly available clusters with appropriate redundancy and scalability.
• Resource Planning: CPU, RAM, storage, and network sizing for production workloads.
• Failover Strategies: Conception of maintenance windows and automatic failover.
• Configuration: Setup and tuning of vSAN datastores and storage policies.
• Error Analysis: Troubleshooting storage latencies and rebuild scenarios.
• Capacity Management: Monitoring, deduplication/compression assessment, and growth planning.
• Network Virtualization: Setup of overlay networks, routing, and firewall rules.
• Security: Micro-segmentation and policy management.
• Integration: Connection to existing physical networks and automation tools.
• Layer 2/Layer 3 Knowledge: VLAN, STP, OSPF/BGP basic configurations and troubleshooting.
• Switching and Routing: Collaboration with the network team for performance optimization.
• Monitoring: Use of tools for latency and throughput monitoring.
• Tuning: Optimization of scheduler, memory, and network parameters for workloads.
• Resource Management: Reservations, limits, and shares for service stabilization.
• Automation: Use of scripts and orchestration to reduce manual interventions.
• Incident Management: Analysis of complex incidents, escalation management, and root cause reporting.
• Change Management: Execution of planned changes with rollback strategies.
• Documentation and Training: Creation of troubleshooting guides and training of the 2nd-level team.
• SLA Fulfillment: Working according to defined service levels and reporting to stakeholders.
• Start: ab sofort
• Remote: hybrid
• Location: Duisburg, Deutschland, DE
• Languages: German