I'm an italian Unix System Administrator currently located in Dublin,
(Ireland).
I have got 9 years experience in managing and writing software for
GNU/Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems.
I've started using those systems in 2000, the same year in which I've
started my university career.
I feel those environments like my natural working habitat.
My non-working time is often spent collaborating actively with two
open-source organizations called Freaknet.org and Dyne.org. I consider myself
a "free software evangelist" for my contributions to those organizations.
During these years I've helped out projects like MuSE (http://muse.dyne.org),
TBT (http://tbt.dyne.org), the Dyne:bolic Linux distro.
My professional career commenced during my university years in which
I've started working for 2 years as a developer for a department of my faculty.
I've then moved to a small Web Agency where I worked as LAMP developer
and occasionally as a system administrator.
In 2004 I moved away from development to enter the system administration world.
I believe it's very important for both developers and system administrators
to get experience on the opposite fields.
I think all software developers need to spend time working on systems
administration so they can understand software from 'both ends'.
In 2004 I moved to a local ISP working as UNIX sysadmin. I was
responsible for maintaining systems (DNS, Mail Server, Web Server,
network equipments, etc) and for internal/external support.
In 2005 I moved to a consultant company with offices based in Catania,
Rome and Milan, working on projects together with companies like Nokia Italy,
Vodafone Italy, ATAC Roma, etc. In that period i've also joined a
project in which i've got the opportunity to enjoy some Linux kernel space
programming. My main job was to write some Linux kernel modules that were
used to capture interrupts coming from switches and other buttons
present on an embedded device, and to pass those interrupts to the relative
user space programs, i've also wrote a kernel module to blink the leds
differently to signal different statuses of the system.
In early 2008 I've moved to Dublin, Ireland, looking for more exciting
experiences, I've joined NewBay Software Ltd firstly as an UNIX
Operations Engineer then moving to the Professional Services team,
specifically in the Deployment Team, here i work mainly in
developing and improving of our deployment automation tools written
in Perl, but also working on performance testing, design, capacity
planning, java/operating system troubleshooting, etc.
Recently I wrote a tool called "img-proxy" which consists in a http
proxy and image thumbnailer. This is used by other company's applications.
The tool is written in mod_perl making use of apache2, mod_disk_cache and
ImageMagick to achieve his duties.
Last project i've worked (and still working) on is an AT&T Project
called "Mobileshare": http://att.com/mobileshare/
I've joined the them who built the whole infrastructure
based on Dell blade centres, Xen virtualization, Netapp iSCSI/NFS storage,
F5 BigIP load balancers, Cisco equipments and Java based applications.
Version control and branching best practices using Subversion, CVS, Git.
Distributed build and test automation using make, autoconf, ExtUtils::MakeMaker, Test::More and Test::MockObject.
Advanced usage of VIM as IDE for developing.
CPAN.org author: I've written and published a Perl module called Finance::Bank::IE::PermanentTSB
(http://search.cpan.org/~pallotron/Finance-Bank-IE-PermanentTSB). This module is based on WWW::Mechanize and HTML::TokeParser
and exposes an interface to the Permanent TSB homebanking site that allows the developer/user to check the account
balance and get account statement (with possibility to save it as CSV file and print graphs using GnuPlot). A CLI utility tool is also provided.
Web and Application Servers: Apache (mod-rewrite, mod-proxy, etc.), Tomcat, JBoss
OpenSSH: strong working knowledge of Tunneling, Sock5 proxing, X11 Forwarding, Reverse proxing;
Mail Server: I used to run Qmail for years but I've recently moved to Postfix + Courier IMAP.
I've strong working knowledge of SMTP and other protocols like IMAP(S) and POP3(S), anti-spam technics like
grey-listing, rbl filters, LDAP authentication and mailing list management with mailman.
DNS: strong working experience in setting up DNS infrastructure using mainly Bind9. Advanced
DNS configurations
NAS/SAN: experience mainly with Netapp appliances using
iSCSI/FibreChannel/NFS technology.
Versioning server: setting up and hardening of Git, Subversion, CVS.
Firewalling: strong knowledge of Linux Iptables and QoS, OpenBSD packet filtering system: pfsync, carp, sasync, ifstated, OpenVPN.
Monitoring: working experience in using Nagios, Cacti, MRTG, RRDTool, SNMPD. Ability to write and configure Nagios scripts,
extend SNMP daemon to launch shell scripts, etc.
HA and LoadBalancing: working experience in using HA solutions like BigIP F5, HeartBeat, DRBD
Backup practices: implemented distribuited tape-based backup infrastructure based on Bacula/Amanda
Security: security and hardening using Tripwire, Grsecurity, Nessus and JASS.
VoIP: implemented software PBX based on Asterisk and Digium cards. Good knowledge of SIP/RTP, voicemail, VCR, Asterisk
dialplan and AGI extensions programming.
Debugging: working debugging best practices using strace, ddd, gdb, ethereal/wireshark, nmap, hping, dsniff, ettercap.
PKI Infrastructures: GnuPG, OpenSSL (able to run and set up a Certification Authority);
SwiftMQ JMS High Availability for Java
IP networks: design and implementation, routing, DNS, firewalls, VPNs, physical layout, cabling.
OpenLDAP (with PAM configuration for UNIX);
experience of targeting code and operating system towards a big variety of platforms, from distribuited multi-tier network environments built via
fast and high-memory servers, down to slow, low ram flash based embedded systems.
Responsible for a wide range of activities like automation of
software and virtual machines deployment, integration with load
balancers and storage, performance testing, java troubleshooting,
capacity planning, design.
Exposed to technologies like:
Solaris 10 (Zones/Containers/ZFS/IPMP) and/or Red Hat GNU/Linux
Xen virtualization
Netapp iSCSI and NFS storage
Java/Tomcat
SwiftMQ HA
Nagios and Cacti
MySQL and Oracle RAC
BigIP F5 LTM/GTM
Cisco switches
Recent project i've worked on:
AT&T Mobileshare: http://att.com/mobileshare/
T-mobile US Myfaves
T-mobile Germany/Austria/UK Myfaves
(July 2005 - January 2008) Linux Embedded Engineer at New COM SRL
(http://www.newcomnp.it).
Linux Embedded Engineer:
I created and actually I maintain an embedded operating system based
on Gentoo Linux, used on embedded computers (pc104 with vortex86 cpu).
This system has the following characteristics:
all the system compiled from scratch;
system compiled over uClibc library, much smaller than glibc.
(a version compiled over glibc is available as well);
Xorg server, touchscreen, virtual on screen keyboard;
optimized disk space : about 70 mb (with all the components);
read only root filesystem;
busybox that combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities
into a single small executable;
serial port for management;
sshd and vnc servers;
This system was used for example to control PLCs attached to industrial machines.
UNIX Software Engineer:
I wrote a C/unixODBC daemon that reads e processes informations coming from
a PLC through rs232 serial port. This daemon send alarms and writes data
to a Microsoft SQL Server using the unixODBC libraries.
The project is called plcfetch, the source is available at:
http://cvs.hinezumilabs.org/viewcvs/plcfetch/
(September 2005 - January 2008) UNIX System/Network
Administrator and IT Consultant at Movia SpA (former SPMC srl)
(http://www.movia.biz).
I was responsible of keeping up and running the whole company's network infrastructure
located in 3 different cities: Catania, Rome and Milan.
On June 2007 I wrote, in C language, a Linux Kernel Module for
an embedded system based on a Toradex Colibri board (CPU Intel ARM
XScale PXA270). This module controls some status leds and receive
the interrupt generated when the user presses some command switchs,
sending commands to an userspace program wrote in C.
The source is available at:
http://www.angelofailla.com/software/colibri-toradex-gpio_linux2.4.tar.gz
On June 2006 I was involved in Teleca Solutions Italia SpA
as a consultant into a FastWeb SpA project called
``Accesso limitato ai CPE da parte dei Clienti''.
I wrote a lot of Perl scripting procedures to sync Oracle database
to MySQL databases used as back-end by RADIUS authentication servers.
On January 2006 I was involed into a LogicaCMG
(http://www.logicacmq.com) team in Vodafone Italia (Milan).
I have customized a lot of korn shell backup scripting procedure
on Compaq Tru64 UNIX V5.1B, Alpha architecture.
I was involved into Vodafone's PoC Web Gui project (from
September 2005 to January 2006). PoCWebGui is a JSP Web GUI
linked into the Vodafone's www.190.it portal, the GUI act as a
front-end management tool for the Pust To Talk service.
I have had duties related to system administration support,
installation and configuration tasks on Solaris 9 operating system,
CVS module administration, shell scripting programming, installation
and configuration documentation writing.
(2001 - Present) Staff member at Freaknet.org and Dyne.org open-source communities.
I'm responsible of keeping up and running our network infrastructure; I used to give
speeches about open source software.
I was also gave lessons as teacher in our free software course
(have a look in the section below on this cv).
I gave my contribute into this free software projects:
MuSE: Multiple Streaming Engine
(http://muse.dyne.org): I wrote the
decoder channel for wav audio files (C++ in UNIX environment);
TBT: Time Based Text: (http://tbt.dyne.org) I wrote some lines into the
main program (C/C++ UNIX environment), a PHP Class used to read files in .tbt format,
a web-application, commissioned by Impakt.nl (wrote in PHP / Javascript / Ajax and
available at http://tbt.dyne.org/impakt/), it is used to public .tbt files on internet.
(December 2004 - September 2005) UNIX system admnistrator at
ComputerLine SRL (http://www.computerlinesrl.it).
I kept running internet services (DNS, Email, WEB, FTP, RDBMS, etc),
I did troubleshooting and techincal support, and issues regarding
TLD domains registration.
(March 2004 - December 2004) LAMP developer at Uzed@ Web
Agency (http://www.uzeda.com)
(2001 - 2002) Developer at ``Dipartimento di Informatica e Telecomunicazioni della
Università degli Studi di Catania'' (http://www.diit.unict.it/).
These are some workshops, speeches, conferences I did as a speaker:
19 November 2004 - Spam: è ora di difendersi! - Implementazione
di servizi anti-spam in Qmail - at Smau Sicilia 2004 (Le Ciminiere -
Catania) http://www.smausicilia.it - A speech regarding spam fighting,
with an example configuration of Qmail with spamassassin;
8 May 2004 - FaxMachine: tecniche a supporto del direct
marketing - at Webb.it 2004 (Padova) http://www.webb.it - A workshop
regarding a fax server software called Hylafax. The workshop treated the
installation on a unix server with fax2email and email2fax capabilities;
6 May 2004 - LDAP per Autenticazione Samba/PAM - at Webb.it
2004 (Padova) http://www.webb.it - Workshop regarding using OpenLDAP as an
authentication backend for samba NT/AD domains using unix machines.
16 February 2004 - Workshop Linux Kernel [Ma|Hac]king - at
Centro Culturale Zo' (v.le Africa - Catania) where I did a pratical workshop
regarding how to compile the Linux 2.6 Kernel. I did this speech also
at the italian hackermeeting in 2004. (http://www.hackmeeting.org);
23 November 2002 - LinuxDay 2002 - ``Aula Magna del Dipartimento di
Matematica e Informatica dell'Università di Catania'' a speech regarding
the use of free software inside public schools.
On 2006 I did a UNIX base course inside my company
On 2003/2004 course code PON 1-3-2003-577 ``Protocolli di
rete e servizi UNIX'': a course for high school teachers at ``Liceo Scientifico
Majorana S.G. La Punta (in Catania)'';
On 2003 course code PON 1-3-2003-561 ``Introduzione allo UNIX
nella scuola'' : a course for high school teachers at ``Liceo Scientifico
Majorana S.G. La Punta (in Catania)'';
On 2003 Course for UNIX sysadmins at FreakNet MediaLab
Catania (http://www.freaknet.org);
On 2002 UNIX base course at FreakNet MediaLab Catania
(http://www.freaknet.org);
DEV - no. 168 April 2005: Compilare il kernel Linux: una guida pratica: i wrote
an article regarding howto compile the Linux kernel. DEV is an italian magazine.
Freaknet ( http://www.freaknet.org ): the oldest italian hacklab.
Born in 1998 as a location for our ``FREAKNET BBS'' Network, active since the end of 1994,
it is a free open lab, where people can work with computers and connect to the internet for free.
The basic idea was to offer computers and network for people that CAN'T have one:
students, viados, immigrants, travellers, etc. Free and Open Source software used.
Most of the computers are recovered from trash or were donated. Many services offered.
Dyne.org ( http://dyne.org ):
Since 2000 the dyne.org foundation is a free software foundry for digital artisans.
Dyne produce open source tools and ideas for media arts, sharing a grassroot access to technology,
education and freedom of creation.
Computer Science and free software:
I use to write and mantain systems for hobbies too, I have got
an home network with a lot of servers used to learn new technologies.
Often I use the world wide web and its infrastructure to learn as much as
I can, I'm always looking for free text, articles, books, whitepapers
to keep my skills always updated.
Photography:
I like to travel with my camera to take wonderfull picture. My preferred
genere is landscape but I like to take pictures of animals and people as well.
I'm recently getting interest in discovery the old good film
photography, i've set up a dark room at home where i mainly develop
black and white film.
I own the following cameras:
Canon 5D mk1 with a set of canon lenses.
Yashica MAT 124g, medium format film camera
Holga 120N, medium format film camera
Vivitar V2000, 35mm format film camera
Fujifilm Instax100, polaroid-like camera
I've a flickr account on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pallotron/.
Rugby: I've been playing since I was 12 years old starting
with Amatori Rugby Catania (http://www.amatorirugbycatania.it). I played on the italian
first division 21 championship (98/99, 99/2000), reaching the playoff.
I played for the Senior team taking Amatori Catania from third to second division,
and then from Second division to the first division (Top Ten).
I then moved to S. Gregorio Rugby
(http://www.sangregoriocataniarugby.com) on third division. I've reached
the "Serie A" (second division) in season 2007/08, before moving to Ireland.
The command line arguments were: latex2html-split 0 -no_navigation -font_size 8pt curriculum_vitae_failla_english.tex
The translation was initiated by pallotron on 2010-05-01
pallotron
2010-05-01
Last modification to this page: 07 February 2009 10:40:37.
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