Kumar Damani - Home

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Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

Kumar Damani - Home

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My name is Kumar. Some people call me kd, I’m known for being…

My name is Kumar. Some people call me kd, or ku-band-mar, I’m known for being…

that guy who hosts his own website, email, dropbox, vpn, etc. Read more.
a stickler about ‘oPtiMiZing mY woRkfLoW’ by scripting anything script-able.
that guy who hosts his own website, dropbox, search-engine etc. +DIY? Why?
a programming purist, and linguistic enthusiast.
👎 down on social-media. I think they lead to dystopia. Read more.
a B.Sc in Computer Science at the University of Toronto with a focus in Natural Language Processing

Projects

My Homelab setup

My Ansible repository used for managing my self-hosted services.
Source on GitLab
Using: Ansible

Namecheap CLI

A containerized CLI to list/add/update/remove DNS records from Namecheap.
Source on GitLab
Using: Go

My dotfiles

My settings for common Linux desktop tooling.
Source on GitLab

Helpthehome(less)

Project info page
Project home
Source on GitLab
Using: NodeJs, React-Native, MongoDB, Pug (jade)

Solutions Repo

Project home
Source on GitLab
Using: NodeJs, MongoDB, Handlebars
a B.Sc in CS. at U of T with a focus in NLP 😌

Projects

Name	Active	Description	Tools
vps	yes	My Ansible repository for self-hosting.	Ansible
nccli	yes	A Docker-ized CLI for CRUD ops with Namecheap.	Go
nixdots	yes	My dotfiles for the Nix ecosystem.	Nix
dots	no	My dotfiles for general Linux home mgmt.	-

-
If you’ve found something above useful, consider sending some coins my way!
+
If you found something above to be useful, consider sending a few coins my way!

Professional Life

Treat this section as an extension of my resume.

2020 - now

-
-Currently working as a **DevOps** at [Kepler](https://kepler.space) 🛰️. -This is mostly a software (infrastructure) dev gig for a start-up, which is a bit new for me -coming from a more classical "DevOps" role for a mature company. There is a ton of specialized *space* -related equipment here that presents interesting problems. -

-Beyond that, I've learned a ton about -embedded computers, networking and network automation, which has opened my world up to -cool home projects for which I am very grateful for. So far, I've been responsible for the -following: +

Professional Life

Treat this section as an extension of my resume.

2020 - now

Currently working as a DevOps at Kepler 🛰️. +This is mostly a software (infrastructure) dev gig for a start-up, which is a bit new to me +coming from a more traditional DevOps role with a mature company. +There is a ton of specialized space +related equipment here that present interesting problems in DevOps.

I’ve learned a ton about embedded computers, networking and network automation, +which has opened my world up to all sorts of home projects for which I am very grateful for. +So far, I’ve been responsible for the following:

Implementing a net-boot infrastructure using Packer, PXE, Awx (Ansible Tower) to keep our -RPi fleet images and configurations in-sync and up-to-date.
Built a custom Linux router to support our lab’s unique hardware testing requirements -for on-demand subnet generation/teardown, and develop Ansible roles switches.
Completely revised our test-automation infrastructure by building a hardware-management -portal using Django with a RESTful Api (DRF) to facilitate reservation, -as well as HITL -(Hardware-in-the-loop) testing to allow us to more reliably, and frequently test our HW.
Designed and deployed our on-prem Kubernetes cluster to be our software -platform going forward, while facilitating the migration to Kubernetes for all pre-existing -workloads, including (but not limited to) our various distributed databases.
Establishing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) as standard practice with Ansible.
Implementing a netboot infrastructure for our development servers - RPis - +using Packer, PXE, Awx (Ansible Tower) to keep them synced, predictable, and up-to-date.
Built a custom Linux router to support our unique hardware testing requirements +for on-demand subnet generation/teardown for isolated tests.
Automated our Lab network infrastructure with Ansible.
Devised a test-automation framework using Django to facilitate reservation, +as well as HIL +(Hardware-In-the-Loop) testing to allow us to more reliably, and frequently test our HW.
Designed and deployed our highly-available Kubernetes cluster to be our software +platform going forward.

Beyond my work as an Individual Contributor, I’ve also been responsible for instilling “DevOps” -principles within the team on our road to maturity.

2019 - 2020

-
-Worked as a **DevOps Engineer** at [AcuityAds](https://acuityads.com) in Toronto. +

Beyond my work as an Individual Contributor (IC), I’ve also been responsible for instilling DevOps +principles within the team on our journey to maturity.

2019 - 2020

Worked as a DevOps Engineer at AcuityAds in Toronto. The main selling point for me to work here is that Acuity does not use -AWS, GCP or Azure etc. to host its infrastructure, it has its own on-prem 'cloud'. +AWS, GCP or Azure etc. to host its infrastructure, it has its own on-prem ‘cloud’. This presents substantial challenges for us as DevOps Engineers that would normally be handled by a -the public cloud provider. -

-Apart from this, due to the nature of adtech, we deal with a massive amount of data, which forces -us to be very specific about the types of technologies we use. Here is a subset of what we use -across multiple data-centers, with high-availability: +public cloud provider.

Apart from this, due to the nature of adtech, we deal with massive amounts of data, which forces +us to be very careful about the types of technologies we use (scale). +Here is a subset of what I’ve gained experience with during my time:

Infrastructure: VMWare, Physical
Provisioning: Ansible, Terraform, Cobbler

- -

2016 - 2017

-
-I worked at [Achiga](https://achiga.io) (formerly *WebCanada*) as -part of my [PEY](https://web.cs.toronto.edu/undergraduate/pey) (internship) -program from UofT for 12 months. As part of this, I was involved in: +

2016 - 2017

I worked at Achiga (formerly WebCanada) as +part of my PEY (internship) +program from U of T for 12 months. As part of this, I was involved in:

A fast paced Agile environment where I was a Full Stack Developer working with PHP (Zend), MySql, and JavaScript.

Design Hotels Gallery Page

2014 - 2016

-
-I've worked on several other small-buisness type projects involving web, and scripting over the -years in between semesters. -

Donate

2014 - 2016

I’ve worked on several other small-buisness type projects involving website designing, +and scripting over the years in between semesters.

Donate

Monero (XMR)

@@ -218,7 +212,7 @@ years in between semesters.

Links

Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

diff --git a/public/post/index.html b/public/post/index.html index 2f62aa1..fbaa589 100644 --- a/public/post/index.html +++ b/public/post/index.html @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ Posts – Kumar Damani - Home - + @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ - + @@ -24,9 +24,9 @@

Kumar Damani - Home

Posts

Links

Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

Adventures in NixOS - Part 1 – Kumar Damani - Home

Kumar Damani - Home

Posts

Adventures in NixOS - Part 1

Almost a guide to getting started with NixOS the modern (2023) way.

There seems to be a shortage of written guides on the Internet for setting up NixOS @@ -375,7 +376,7 @@ all my apps support it, and things just feel more polished than I have

Links

Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

@@ -405,6 +406,8 @@ all my apps support it, and things just feel more polished than I have

+ +

Romanticism in Programming – Kumar Damani - Home

Kumar Damani - Home

Posts

Romanticism in Programming

Why there is art in programming.

During my early days as a CS student, one of the first mind-blowing moments was @@ -120,7 +121,7 @@ you are willing to accept, which varies by the observer: much like art.

Links

Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

@@ -150,6 +151,8 @@ you are willing to accept, which varies by the observer: much like art.

+ +

Programs and Equipment – Kumar Damani - Home

Kumar Damani - Home

Posts

Programs and Equipment

The programs and equipment I use on a daily basis.

Programs and Equipment I Use

@@ -108,7 +109,7 @@ suffice it to say I will not endorse the usage of proprietary software.

Links

Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

@@ -138,6 +139,8 @@ suffice it to say I will not endorse the usage of proprietary software.

+ +

Why do I self-host? – Kumar Damani - Home

Kumar Damani - Home

Posts

Why do I self-host?

My reasons for self-hosting.

Digital freedom/independence

@@ -181,7 +182,7 @@ Short of this, you can only limit your usage.

Links

Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

@@ -211,6 +212,8 @@ Short of this, you can only limit your usage.

+ +

Series – Kumar Damani - Home

Kumar Damani - Home

Posts

Links

Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

Tags – Kumar Damani - Home

Kumar Damani - Home

Posts

Links

Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

index – Kumar Damani - Home

Kumar Damani - Home

Posts

Links

Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

personal – Kumar Damani - Home

Kumar Damani - Home

Posts

Links

Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

tech – Kumar Damani - Home

Kumar Damani - Home

Posts

Links

Git, email, resume etc.

Git, email, and resume

technology – Kumar Damani - Home