SENIOR CISCO UCS AND VIRTUALISATION ENGINEER PLATFORM ENGINEERING

Role Responsibilities

• UCS Firmware Upgrades:

o Plan, coordinate, and execute UCS firmware upgrades across Fabric Interconnects, blades, and rack servers.

o Ensure minimal downtime and system stability during upgrades.

o Troubleshoot any post-upgrade issues and coordinate resolutions with Cisco TAC if necessary.

• ESXi Upgrades & Maintenance:

o Upgrade VMware ESXi hosts and ensure compatibility with UCS firmware versions.

o Validate upgrades in staging/UAT environments before deployment to production.

o Address performance, compatibility, and licensing considerations post-upgrade.

• Performance Monitoring & Troubleshooting:

o Monitor system performance pre- and post-upgrade to ensure stability.

o Investigate and resolve any upgrade-related failures or performance degradations.

o Work with cross-functional teams to address any interoperability issues.

• Capacity Planning & Scalability:

o Assess current infrastructure to determine upgrade impacts and resource requirements.

o Plan for future scalability while ensuring UCS and ESXi environments remain optimized.

• Documentation & Reporting:

o Maintain detailed records of upgrade procedures, rollback plans, and post-upgrade reports.

o Provide recommendations for improving upgrade processes and minimizing operational risk.

Experience / Competencies

Essential:

• VMware ESXi Expertise:

o Strong understanding of ESXi, vCenter, clustering (HA, DRS, vMotion), and Storage vMotion.

• Cisco UCS Administration:

o Expertise in Cisco UCS Manager, Fabric Interconnects, service profiles, and hardware configurations.

• Firmware Upgrade Experience:

o Hands-on experience planning and executing UCS firmware and ESXi upgrades.

o Knowledge of upgrade dependencies, interoperability considerations, and rollback strategies.

• Performance Tuning & Troubleshooting:

o Ability to diagnose and resolve UCS and ESXi performance issues.

o Experience using VMware and Cisco diagnostic tools for root cause analysis.

Automation & Scripting:

• Familiarity with PowerCLI, Ansible, or Python for automating upgrade-related tasks.

• Storage & SAN Connectivity:

o Understanding of integrating VMware with SAN/NAS storage (Fibre Channel, iSCSI).

• Incident Management & Support:

o Experience handling P1/P2 incidents and working with Cisco TAC/VMware Support.

• Infrastructure Documentation:

o Ability to create detailed upgrade runbooks and troubleshooting guides.

Desired:

• Experience with UCS Central for multi-site UCS management.

• Familiarity with VMware vSAN and NSX.

• Knowledge of hybrid cloud deployments (AWS/Azure VMware solutions).

• Understanding of ITIL change management processes.

#J-18808-Ljbffr