Meet the IT Staff: Enterprise Systems and Data Center Operations
Charlie Metzger
Director of Enterprise Systems and Data Center Operations
Deputy CIO of OSU A&M Schools
Accomplishments
Mr. Metzger has worked in IT and higher education for over 28 years. He began his career with OSU Information Technology as a mainframe COBOL/DB2/IMS/CICS developer and later led IT's first web application development team during the emergence of the dot-com era. He assumed responsibility for the university's mainframe environment just prior to the "Y2K crisis" and managed the mainframe environment until the mainframe's eventual retirement in 2018. Mr. Metzger served as technical lead for the Banner ERP implementation which replaced the mainframe environment. In his current role as the Manager of Enterprise Operating Systems, Mr. Metzger provides leadership and oversight for the OSU/A&M Banner ERP environment and the OSU IT Data Center.
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Transformational leadership
- Design thinking
- Data center modernization
Current Projects
- Banner disaster recovery review
- Data Center modernization
Jeff Arnold
Operations Technologist I
Current Projects
- Keeping the Data Center PC’s up to date and operational
- Following current technical innovations and upgrading Ops equipment
Jeffrey Holly
Operations Technologist I
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Increasing the physical security of the data center.
Jim Davis
Database Administrator
Accomplishments
Starting out as a student programmer, Mr. Davis retired after working 31 years at Northeastern State University. He has extensive experience in all aspects of programming on multiple operating systems, computer languages and hardware including areas of overlap with telephony and computer networks. He has created innovative software solutions in an extremely wide range of Higher Education areas.
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Software best practices and source control.
- Software development frameworks for various computer languages and platforms
- Software automation tools and applications
- Software tools for analyzing computer and network performance
Current Projects
- Finish preparation for PROD ODS 9.1/9.2 Upgrade on production batch servers
- Finish ODSP Code Tree preparation for 9.1/9.2 Upgrade
- Automate ODI Log Purges per Ellucian guidelines
- Provide assistance on ETHOS project
Kyle Haines
Shift Coordinator
Accomplishments
IT Social Committee Representative for Data Center
Data Center Continuity
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Data Center Design and Planning
- Data Center Operations
- Data Center Management
Current Projects
- Data Center Operations
- CRAC Unit Oversight (Temperature and Humidity adjustments for seasonal and server changes)
- Part Time Scheduling
Matt Kerntke
Database Administrator
Accomplishments
Mr. Kerntke has worked for Oklahoma State University's IT department for 20 years.
He spent 10+ years working with mainframe production, 4 years as manager of the area.
He has spent the last 7 years working with the new Banner environment and was part
of the team tasked with implementation. In the past year he has built the new Cognos
11 reporting environments, aided in the migration of the Oracle databases (both staging
and production) to the new Exadata hardware, and built new servers to handle transmitting
database generate files to vendors/departments.
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Further develop skillset for working with Apache and tomcat, training on network architecture and protocol layers
Current Projects
- Finalizing of Cognos 11 implementation/testing, updating Oracle database password versions to improve security.
Daniel Minton
Operations Shift Coordinator
Accomplishments
Oversaw the maintenance of server inventory and server documentation, ensuring the
accuracy of the information for both IT and public dissemination
Worked on streamlining processes to ensure faster relay of information needed for
repair and maintenance of server processes
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Ensuring the speed and accuracy of IT needs
- Growth in IT security needs and processes
- Expanding Ops area of influence to coincide with current IT ideals
Current Projects
- Server and procedure documentation
- Physical inventory maintenance
- Streamlining information dissemination
Robert Mixon
DCS Operator
Accomplishments
Mr. Mixon graduated from OSU in 2011 and has worked for the university since. In his time with the university, he has assisted with the fiber migration, fulfilled a record number of installs during pandemic and assisted in implementing Ops unique pandemic quarantine system.
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Aiding IT innovation
- networking certification and more experience in the field.
Current Projects
- Modernizing server farm and prevention of issues from equipment’s end of life.
Christopher Painter
Operations Shift Coordinator
Accomplishments
Mr. Painter has worked in the OSU IT Data Center for over 15 years. In general, he
has been responsible for ensuring work requested of the Data Center has been completed
in a timely manner. He has recently completed a project to migrate fiber lines from
end-of-life hardware including diagnosing and remedying issues with new connections.
He has also helped plan the locations of the new Storage Area Network (SAN) hardware
to help balance resource requirements.
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Information Assurance
- Data Center Planning and Design
- Basic Electronics
- Gaming/computing history.
Current Projects
- Working with CS Department to relocate their computer room to the Data Center.
- Writing a style guide to wiring procedures in the Data Center.
- Maintenance and monitoring of systems in the Data Center.
Kerris Powell
Manager Data Base Administration
Accomplishments
Mr. Powell has worked for Oklahoma State University IT for over 20 years. He spent most of the first 7 years working for the OSU IT Data Center before transitioning to database and system administration fifteen years ago. Mr. Powell currently is a Manger in the Enterprise Operating Systems area with a focus in database administration of OSU IT's legacy and Banner Oracle databases and Weblogic and tomcat administration for the Middleware components of the Banner applications. In the past year, Mr. Powell has completed the configuration of OSU IT's new Oracle Exadatas, coordinated the Oracle database migration to those new Exadatas, and coordinated the migration all the Weblogic servers for the banner environment to Linux 7 servers.
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Oracle Databases
- MySQL and Microsoft SQLServer
- Linux Administration
Current Projects
- Langston Starrez configuration
- Upgrade 12.2.0.1 Oracle Databases to 19c
- Weblogic to Tomcat Conversion, Connection Manager Configuration
- Oracle Cloud backup configuration for new Exadatas
- Key Vault configuration for new Exadatas
Shelley Taylor
Database Administrator
Accomplishments
Shelley graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in MIS and has worked in the OSU IT department for almost 5 years.
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Banner Upgrade Process Better understand and write PL/SQL Ethos Evision
Current Projects
- Implementing Clean Address Integration with Banner General Self Service Implementing Communication Manager
Brenda Williams
Manager
Accomplishments
Monitored, analyzed and made modifications to improve the performance of Banner Employee
Self Service. The result was over an eighty percent improvement in Time and Leave
approvals.
Upgraded the Banner 9 applications to address various security issues with underlying
open source components used within the Banner Self-Service Platform.
Researched, planned and implemented Ethos Integration which allows for “real-time”
integration between 3rd party applications and Banner.
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Interested in implementing a system that allows for data driven decisions to increase
performance of the ERP applications and enhance the end user experience.
- Explore opportunities to provide a more secure and reliable environment for the ERP
applications.
- IT Management training.
Current Projects
- Banner 8 Self-Service to Banner 9 Self-Service conversion
- Conversion of the Banner 9 application to run on tomcat servers.
- Implementing Banner Extensibility, Banner Communications Manager, TouchNet One Card integration with Ethos and ILP integration with Ethos.
Jacky Wu
Database Administrator
Accomplishments
1. Provide timely support to all eight campus
2. Drafted and finished instruction for several area such as transcript printing etc..
3. Make organzation and work process clear with self-made work flow.
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Keep learning on business analytic skills on database and data related field.
- With full interest on learning new software and skills if need and willing to share the experience with joy.
Current Projects
- Printer server migration for TEST and PROD.
Dake (Neo) Zhang
Database Administrator
Accomplishments
Mr. Zhang has been working in IT and Higher Education for years in Oklahoma. He has dedicated himself to Data management and analytics for the university and Digital Transformation in Higher Education. He has built the Document Image System for all different departments across the campus.
Areas of Interest and Growth
- Big data management Algorithms and Methods for Big Data Analytics.
- Data mining
Current Projects
- Upgrade ApplicationXtender to 20.4 for both Legacy and BDM system Upgrade Grooper to 2021