23+ years in Linux/Windows administration, DevOps, and cloud infrastructure. I build, secure, and scale production systems 24/7 — for MSP clients and direct engagements across industries.
If your server is down, your deployment is failing, or you need infrastructure built right the first time — I'm the engineer you call.
━━ SERVER & SYSTEMS ━━
Linux (CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, Amazon Linux, Rocky Linux) and Windows Server (2012–2025). Active Directory, Group Policy, Intune, hybrid identity. Nginx, Apache, Sendmail, Qmail, Postfix, Exim — MTA setup, Dovecot, SpamAssassin, OpenDKIM, SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Veeam, Acronis, cloud-native DR. Hypervisors: KVM, VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, Proxmox VE — HA clusters, live migration, Ceph/ZFS, Proxmox Backup Server. Redis, Varnish. QNAP NAS — storage management, Plex Media Server deployment, VPN tunnel integration. WHM/cPanel, Plesk, Virtualmin, CloudPanel, CyberPanel.
━━ CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE ━━
AWS: EC2, ECS, EKS, RDS, S3, Route 53, IAM, VPC, CloudWatch, Lambda, API Gateway, Elastic Disaster Recovery. GCP: Cloud Run, Cloud Build, Firestore, GKE, IAM, VPC, Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage, Secret Manager, Cloud Monitoring. Cloudflare (WAF, Workers, Zero Trust, CDN). DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr.
MinIO: S3-compatible object storage on bare metal, VMs, Kubernetes — distributed mode, SSE-S3/KMS, lifecycle policies, drop-in S3 for backups and MLOps.
Railway: Full-stack PaaS — GitHub/Docker auto-build, managed DBs (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis), private networking, env variables, cron workers, auto-scaling.
━━ SECRETS MANAGEMENT ━━
HashiCorp Vault: Dynamic secrets for AWS IAM, databases, cloud providers — TTL-bound credentials, auto-revoke. PKI for internal CA and on-demand TLS. Vault Secrets Operator for Kubernetes (etcd-free pod injection). Raft HA, RBAC, audit logging, Shamir unseal. Transit engine for encryption-as-a-service. CI/CD integration to eliminate hardcoded credentials.
━━ DEVOPS & CI/CD ━━
Docker, Kubernetes (EKS + self-managed: kubeadm, k3s, RKE2), Helm, Kamal. GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Bitbucket Pipelines. Terraform, Ansible. ArgoCD, Flux (GitOps). Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog.
Traefik: Cloud-native ingress — auto TLS, Docker/K8s service discovery, ForwardAuth, rate limiting, canary routing.
Caddy: Zero-config-TLS reverse proxy — automatic HTTPS, on-demand certs. Preferred for self-hosted stacks.
━━ NETWORKING & SECURITY ━━
WireGuard, OpenVPN (MFA/ZTNA), IPSec/Libreswan, Xray/REALITY. Tailscale/Headscale — self-hosted mesh VPN, VPS tunnel setup, ACL policies, subnet routing. MikroTik, Juniper, SonicWall, Fortinet (FortiGate, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer). pfSense, OPNsense. BGP, OSPF. Auth0, OAuth2, OIDC, Duo Security. LDAP/RADIUS, 802.1x, NPS/AD CS/Intune.
━━ DEVELOPMENT & AUTOMATION ━━
Python: FastAPI, Flask, Django, RESTful APIs, OpenAI API, ETL pipelines (Airbyte), orchestration (Airflow, n8n), data processing (pandas), Retool internal tools. Clean, documented, production-ready code.
━━ CONTAINERIZATION & DEPLOYMENT ━━
Docker Compose, Kubernetes manifests, Helm. Portainer, Coolify, Elestio, Traefik, Caddy. MinIO (K8s Operator/Tenant). Nextcloud, n8n, self-hosted app deployment. Vercel, Railway, Netlify, Replit.
━━ MSP & VOIP ━━
Duo Security, SpamTitan, ScreenConnect, ESET, Acronis. M365 multi-tenant administration. Asterisk and Vicidial (AWS + on-prem) — SIP trunks, IVR, call center setup, NetSIP integration.
━━ LEGACY & EARLY CAREER ━━
Foundational background in Windows desktop application development (VB, C#, Access) and web development (Core PHP, Laravel).
━━ WHAT CLIENTS HIRE ME FOR ━━
► Emergency triage: servers down, services failing, breaches in progress
► Greenfield AWS/cloud environments built to security and compliance best practices
► CI/CD pipelines rebuilt to work reliably — no more failed deployments at 2am
► Self-hosted stacks that cut cloud bills without cutting uptime
► Kubernetes from scratch: EKS, k3s, RKE2 — setup, Helm, GitOps, day-2 operations
► HashiCorp Vault rollouts — eliminate hardcoded credentials across all pipelines
► Proxmox VE clusters: HA, live migration, Ceph storage, Proxmox Backup Server
► Network redesigns: Zero Trust, WireGuard mesh, BGP multi-homed, FortiGate, pfSense
► Ongoing managed infrastructure support and 24/7 incident response
► GCP solution design & delivery — Cloud Run, microservices, IAM, developer onboarding/offboarding
► Infrastructure, Security & Application Audits — server, network, database, cloud, and web stack
━━ INDUSTRIES SERVED ━━
SaaS · Fintech · Healthcare · E-commerce · Legal · Real Estate · Media · Education · Government · Telecoms · Startups · Enterprise. Single-server MVPs to multi-region, multi-account production environments.
━━ COMMUNICATION & PROCESS ━━
I don't disappear after the kickoff call. Clear updates at every stage, thorough documentation, and a proper handover on every engagement. Timezone-flexible. Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, Zoom, or Webex. If the work matters, it gets done right.
Python
Apache HTTP Server
NGINX
System Administration
Docker
Kubernetes
DevOps
Linux System Administration
AWS Systems Manager
Network Administration
Google Cloud Platform Administration
Cloudflare
OpenVPN
Zero Trust Architecture
Terraform
Zohaib S.
Hyderabad City, Pakistan
$10/hr
5.0
56 jobs
Since 2011, I’ve carved out a niche as a dedicated IT professional with a passion for both Linux and Windows systems. I specialize in creating resilient IT infrastructures and am committed to leveraging my dynamic expertise to solve complex technology problems.
Key Strengths:
Ubuntu, Debian, Centos, AlmaLinux. Redhat
Nextcloud
Email Server Zimbra
Matrix Synapse Chat Server
VPS Hosting
Webhosting
Apache, Nginx
Gitlab
Gerrit
Rsyslog Server
Collabora Nextcloud Office
Signaling Server
HPB Nextcloud
Jitsi Meet
Wordpress & Laravel Deployment
Phpmyadmin
SMTP Server Postfix
OpenVPN Community Edition
SSO OpenLDAP
Taiga Project Management Tool Deployment
Cronjobs
Guacamole
RustDesk
Nagios Core
PHP multiversion
NGINX and Apache Reverse Proxy
Rocketchat
Tomcat
Digital Ocean
Linode
VPS Hosting
Linux Complex Troubleshootings
Webmin
Virtualmin
DNS SPF, DMARC, DKIM, MX Records
Google Workspace And Goddy Domains Integration
WHM
Cpanel
Plesk
Wordpress Deployment / Migration
Email Deliverability
System Administration
Zimbra Administration
GitLab
Web Server
Linux
DigitalOcean
Ubuntu
Debian
OpenVPN
NGINX
Apache Administration
Apache HTTP Server
Linux System Administration
Server Administration
DNS
Zain A.
Faisalabad, Pakistan
$30/hr
5.0
91 jobs
I migrate, harden, and run hybrid infrastructure across AWS, VMware, and Proxmox so you get one architect for both your cloud and your on-prem stack instead of stitching together three specialists. Whether you're moving on-prem workloads to AWS, building a Proxmox or VMware cluster, recovering a broken Linux server, or automating deployments with Ansible and CI/CD, I've done it across 85 completed jobs at a 100% Job Success score.
13+ years of hands-on enterprise infrastructure experience, AWS-certified (Solutions Architect, SysOps, Developer) and KCNA, with real production work behind every claim below.
Cloud & migration
On-prem ↔ AWS migrations (MGN/DRS), EC2, ECS/Fargate, Lightsail, CloudFront, NGINX, SSL/certificate setup, and AWS backup configuration. I've moved live workloads both directions AWS to on-prem and Dell PowerEdge to consolidated micro-servers without losing data or uptime.
Virtualization
Proxmox (installs, v6→v8 upgrades, cluster setup, VM/VMDK exports from AMI) and VMware (vCenter/ESXi cluster setup, vSphere, VMDK migrations). This is repeat work for me, not a side skill.
Disaster recovery & resilience
Tested DR with real RTO/RPO targets, warm-standby and pilot-light patterns, and backup strategies that actually restore verified, not assumed.
DevOps & automation
Ansible-first configuration automation, Docker and Docker Swarm, Jenkins CI/CD pipelines, and containerized deployments. I automate the repeatable so your team stops doing it by hand.
Linux & hardening
Server hardening, security baselines, performance tuning, hosting stacks (Plesk, cPanel), and monitoring with DataDog across Ubuntu, RHEL/CentOS, and SUSE.
What clients consistently say: clear communication, reliable delivery, and solving the actual problem instead of the surface symptom.
Send me a short description of your environment and what you're trying to achieve. I'll reply with a straight assessment and an honest recommendation on whether I'm the right fit usually within a few hours.
Proxmox VE
Amazon Web Services
AWS Server Migration
Cloud Migration
Disaster Recovery
VMWare
Virtualization
System Administration
Linux System Administration
Ansible
Docker
DevOps Engineering
Kubernetes
Infrastructure as Code
CI/CD
Veeam
Cloud Security
Windows Server
Cloud Architecture
cPanel
Daniel K.
Bamberg, Germany
$85/hr
5.0
18 jobs
Hosting provider at elyrix.de
- Redundant Ceph storage, HA systems, autohealing - no downtime during regular maintenance anymore!
I am a passionate German IT professional specializing in Linux system administration, managed hosting, and DevOps. From my work as an operational IT security specialist, I also bring solid expertise in secure infrastructures and security-focused configurations.
My focus is on pragmatic, reliable, and secure solutions - from server and hosting environments through deployment pipelines to the automation of recurring technical tasks. I help companies run their Linux-based infrastructure in a stable, maintainable, and secure way.
Concrete, in-depth experience in:
- Managed hosting (incl. redundant Ceph storage, HA systems, autohealing)
- Automation with Ansible
- CI/CD and DevOps workflows
- Application virtualization with Docker
- Python scripting
- Virtualization with Proxmox
- General system administration on Debian-based systems
Where it makes sense, I deliberately use modern AI tools - e.g. for documentation, analysis, scripting, and AI-assisted development on client projects.
For my clients - from small and medium-sized businesses to individual project teams - I have set up and maintained a broad range of services, including:
- Identity and Access Management (IAM), including SSO for all connected applications
- Email and web services (Mailcow, Stalwart, Plesk)
- Ticketing system (Zammad)
- Monitoring (various, including Grafana, CheckMK, Zabbix)
- File sharing with Nextcloud
- CRM setup as needed (EspoCRM)
This naturally also includes configuring a variety of physical and virtual servers, routers/firewalls (OPNsense), various WireGuard VPN connections (site-to-site, end-to-site), and much more. I additionally bring foundational experience with cloud environments such as Microsoft 365 and AWS.
Proxmox VE
Ansible
Linux System Administration
Computing & Networking
DevOps
Information Security
Problem Solving
Imam D.
Karachi, Pakistan
$35/hr
5.0
65 jobs
I provide reliable Cloud, ERP, VPN, Firewall, Backup, Remote Access, and IT Infrastructure solutions for businesses.
I help companies set up, secure, manage, and troubleshoot their IT systems including servers, cloud hosting, VPN, firewalls, backup solutions, RDP access, Proxmox infrastructure, ERPNext hosting, accounting software, and monthly IT support SLA.
My services include:
• Cloud server setup and management
• Dedicated and standard server configuration
• Proxmox infrastructure deployment and support
• Hetzner cloud support
• OpenVPN and remote access setup
• Fortinet firewall configuration and troubleshooting
• RDP users and CAL services support
• ERPNext hosting and rental-based ERP/accounting software
• Accounting and inventory software support
• SSL security setup
• Veeam and Nakivo backup configuration
• Backup storage and file server solutions
• Windows and Linux server support
• IT troubleshooting and end-user support
• Monthly IT support SLA for businesses
I focus on secure, stable, and business-ready solutions. My goal is to provide clean deployment, proper documentation, reliable troubleshooting, and long-term support for clients.
If you need help with cloud hosting, VPN, firewall, remote access, ERP hosting, backup, or complete IT infrastructure, I can support you from planning to deployment and ongoing maintenance.
Let’s discuss your requirement and build a reliable solution for your business.
Proxmox VE
Windows Server
System Administration
Ubuntu
Linux
Network Administration
Network Engineering
VPN
Firewall
Technical Support
IT Infrastructure
Server Administration
Cloud Computing
Cloud Management
Virtualization
Backup & Migration
Veeam
Veritas NetBackup
Backup Administration
Linux System Administration
Bladimir F.
Santa Tecla, El Salvador
$50/hr
5.0
66 jobs
🏆 Top Rated Plus | 100% Job Success
🏆 Senior Infrastructure Engineer
🏆 Linux • Networking • Monitoring • Automation • Security Operations • Windows • DevOps
I help businesses design, troubleshoot, monitor, secure, and automate production infrastructure environments.
With 15+ years of hands-on experience across Linux systems, cloud infrastructure, enterprise networking, monitoring platforms, observability workflows, infrastructure automation, and security operations, I focus on solving complex operational and infrastructure challenges reliably and professionally.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💻 Infrastructure & Linux Engineering
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✅ Linux administration (Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, CentOS, RedHat)
✅ Infrastructure troubleshooting & operational support
✅ Server hardening & patch management
✅ Performance tuning & infrastructure optimization
✅ Docker & containerized environments
✅ VPN deployments (WireGuard, OpenVPN, IPsec)
✅ DNS troubleshooting & infrastructure migrations
✅ NGINX, Apache, LiteSpeed optimization
✅ MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL administration
✅ Infrastructure monitoring & operational visibility
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📊 Monitoring & Observability
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✅ Zabbix deployment, templates, alerting & monitoring
✅ Graylog centralized logging & syslog ingestion
✅ Infrastructure observability workflows
✅ SNMP monitoring & telemetry collection
✅ Infrastructure dashboards & alerting strategies
✅ Log parsing, visibility & operational troubleshooting
✅ Monitoring Linux servers, switches, VPS, cloud environments & infrastructure services
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌐 Network Engineering
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✅ Arista & Cisco Nexus operational support
✅ VLANs, VRFs, routing & switching
✅ WireGuard & site-to-site VPN deployments
✅ A10 Networks & CGNAT operational support
✅ Network troubleshooting & operational visibility
✅ Firewall policy troubleshooting
✅ Infrastructure telemetry & monitoring integrations
✅ Infrastructure cabling & operational deployments
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
☁️ Cloud & Infrastructure Operations
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✅ AWS infrastructure support
✅ Cloudflare integrations & DNS management
✅ EC2, VPC, RDS, Redis & infrastructure deployments
✅ Amazon SES, SPF, DKIM & DMARC configuration
✅ Email deliverability troubleshooting
✅ Cloud migrations & infrastructure onboarding
✅ Infrastructure automation using Bash & Python
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔐 Security Operations
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✅ Vulnerability remediation support
✅ Security hardening & MFA enforcement
✅ Incident response & operational troubleshooting
✅ Malware cleanup & compromised server handling
✅ Infrastructure security baselines
✅ Operational security reviews
✅ ISO27001 / SOC2 / HIPAA operational support
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🛠️ Platforms & Technologies
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💻 Linux:
Ubuntu • Debian • AlmaLinux • CentOS • RedHat
🌐 Networking:
Arista • Cisco Nexus • WireGuard • VPN • VLAN • VRF • A10 Networks
📊 Monitoring:
Zabbix • Graylog • SNMP • Syslog • Telemetry
☁️ Cloud:
AWS • Cloudflare • DigitalOcean • Linode • Vultr
⚙️ Automation:
Bash • Python • REST APIs • Infrastructure Automation
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🚀 What You Can Expect
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✅ Clear communication
✅ Production-safe execution
✅ Strong troubleshooting methodology
✅ Clean documentation
✅ Long-term operational stability
✅ Infrastructure-focused solutions
✅ Reliable and professional support
I am comfortable working independently, collaborating with internal teams, troubleshooting production incidents, and supporting long-term infrastructure operations across enterprise and MSP environments.
CentOS
Apache HTTP Server
System Administration
Linux System Administration
Service Cloud Administration
Windows Administration
Network Administration
Performance Optimization
WordPress Malware Removal
VPN
Debian
WordPress e-Commerce
MySQL
MariaDB
cPanel
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How to Hire Top Proxmox VE Specialists
How to hire Proxmox VE specialists
Server virtualization comes with many benefits: less physical infrastructure, reduced energy costs, longer uptimes, and better disaster recovery, to name a few. Virtual machines are more robust. Containers are more efficient. If you’re looking for a virtualization solution that can give you the best of both worlds, a Proxmox VE specialist can help.
So how do you hire Proxmox VE specialists? What follows are some tips for finding top Proxmox VE specialists on Upwork.
How to shortlist Proxmox VE professionals
As you’re browsing available Proxmox VE contractors, it can be helpful to develop a shortlist of professionals you may want to interview. You can screen profiles on criteria such as:
Technology fit. You want a Proxmox VE specialist who understands your IT infrastructure so that they can optimize it.
Workflow. You want a Proxmox VE specialist who can slide right into your existing IT workflow (e.g., Jira, Trello, Slack)
Project experience. Screen candidate profiles for specific skills and experience (e.g., migrate Xen VMs to Proxmox).
Feedback. Check reviews from past clients for glowing testimonials or red flags that can tell you what it’s like to work with a particular Proxmox VE professional.
How to write an effective Proxmox VE job post
With a clear picture of your ideal Proxmox VE specialist in mind, it’s time to write that job post. Although you don’t need a full job description as you would when hiring an employee, aim to provide enough detail for a contractor to know if they’re the right fit for the project.
An effective Proxmox VE job post should include:
Scope of work: From setting up portable developer environments to virtualizing your IT infrastructure, list all the deliverables you’ll need.
Project length: Your job post should indicate whether this is a smaller or larger project.
Background: If you prefer experience working with certain operating systems, server technologies, and development methodologies, mention this here.
Budget: Set a budget and note your preference for hourly rates vs. fixed-price contracts.
Proxmox VE gives you a single solution for managing both virtual machines and containers. Based on a Debian Linux distribution with a modified Ubuntu LTS kernel, Proxmox VE supports both full virtualization with KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) and containers with LXC (Linux Containers).
Here’s a quick overview of the skills you should look for in Proxmox VE contractors:
Network administration (Linux, Windows, etc.)
System operations (SysOps)
Virtual machines and containers
DevOps (not required, but nice to have)
Proxmox VE gives you a single solution for managing both virtual machines and containers. Based on a Debian Linux distribution with a modified Ubuntu LTS kernel, Proxmox VE supports both full virtualization with KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) and containers with LXC (Linux Containers).
Here’s a quick overview of the skills you should look for in Proxmox VE contractors:
Network administration (Linux, Windows, etc.)
System operations (SysOps)
Virtual machines and containers
DevOps (not required, but nice to have)
Why hire Proxmox VE specialists?
The trick to finding top Proxmox VE specialists is to identify your needs. Do you need help with basic provisioning and deployment of Proxmox virtual machines and containers? Or do you also require experience with other virtualization tools such as Docker or Kubernetes?
The cost of your project will depend largely on your scope of work and the specific skills needed to bring your project to life.
The trick to finding top Proxmox VE specialists is to identify your needs. Do you need help with basic provisioning and deployment of Proxmox virtual machines and containers? Or do you also require experience with other virtualization tools such as Docker or Kubernetes?
The cost of your project will depend largely on your scope of work and the specific skills needed to bring your project to life.
How much does it cost to hire a Proxmox VE professional?
Rates can vary due to many factors, including expertise and experience, location, and market conditions.
An experienced Proxmox VE contractor may command higher fees but also work faster, have more-specialized areas of expertise, and deliver higher-quality work.
A contractor who is still in the process of building a client base may price their Proxmox VE services more competitively.
Which one is right for you will depend on the specifics of your project.
Rates can vary due to many factors, including expertise and experience, location, and market conditions.
An experienced Proxmox VE contractor may command higher fees but also work faster, have more-specialized areas of expertise, and deliver higher-quality work.
A contractor who is still in the process of building a client base may price their Proxmox VE services more competitively.
Which one is right for you will depend on the specifics of your project.