Technical platform administrator: duties and responsibilities

1. Job description and requirements for the technical platform administrator position

The responsibilities and requirements for a candidate applying for the position of a technical platform administrator include, but are not limited to, the following categories:

Management of technical components of the platform:

  • Deployment of the platform components in cloud environments, including AWS and vSphere.

  • Management of the platform components and registries with OpenShift (OKD)

  • Deployment and configuration of the platform infrastructure components using Terraform.

Container management:

  • Container deployment, configuration, and management using Cri-o Runtime based on an OKD cluster.

  • Container operations analysis and optimization

  • Proficiency in using Helm for package deployment and OpenShift (OKD) configuration management.

Distributed file system:

  • Understanding basic principles and practices applicable to distributed file systems, namely Ceph.

  • Deployment and configuration of Ceph clusters.

  • Storage and management of data volumes in Ceph.

Backup and recovery:

  • Setting up backup and disaster recovery of platform resources using Velero and pgBackRest.

  • Having experience working with object storage, including Minio for storing backups.

Monitoring and logging:

  • System metrics monitoring and analysis using Grafana and Prometheus.

  • Ensuring smooth operation of the logging system using Elasticsearch, Fluentd and Kibana.

  • Understanding service monitoring and tracing principles. Using Kiali and Jaeger.

Automation:

  • Experience working with Jenkins for organizing continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) processes.

  • Skills in configuring and using Git and Gerrit VCS for integration, versioning, and code review.

  • Proficiency with Nexus for artifact storage and management.

Secrets management:

  • Understanding and experience working with identity-based secrets and encryption management system such as HashiCorp Vault, and others.

  • Roles, policies, and access to secrets configuration and management

Authentication and authorization:

  • Keycloak system configuration and management.

  • Control over user access to resources.

  • Understanding and experience working with authentication systems, namely Keycloak and Kong API management.

  • Understanding of authorization mechanisms, including RBAC and Kubernetes RBAC Authorization.

Database management:

  • Deployment, configuration, and management of PostgreSQL databases using CrunchyData Postgres Operator and Pgpool.

  • Monitoring and analysis of database metrics using Grafana and Prometheus.

Message brokers:

  • Using Kafka for processing large data streams, knowledge in error handling mechanisms, replication, and access management.

  • Deployment and configuration of Kafka Schema Registry for data schema management and Strimzi for Kafka cluster management and monitoring.

Ensuring platform reliability and security:

  • Vulnerability tracking and providing troubleshooting recommendations.

  • Control over the use of strong passwords and their regular updating.

  • Configuration and usage of Kong for internal resources access management.

  • Understanding of DevSecOps principles and practices.

  • Performing regular platform security audits.

  • Debugging and monitoring of inter-service communication using Istio.

2. Related pages

For detailed information on the technologies that an administrator should use when working with the platform, please refer to Platform technology stack.