[linuxjobs] Software Consultant

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

Gentlemen:

Funny you should call! My contract with the BBC is scheduled to end October
26, and I'm looking for contracting after that. My wife family is here in
the UK for her to get a master's degree in book conservation at West Dean.
Unfortunately, I can't travel that much, because my wife and daughter need
me at home. So I suspect this position is not suitable for me.

*BUT*, I wanted to talk to your company anyway.  I've been trying to build
the opsview SRPM under RHEL 5, and I've got to tell you there are a set of
serious issues:

   * It won't build as a non-root user. This is because the Nagios "make
install" command does some unfortunate steps that require root privilege,
and those can conflict with a system that already has Nagios or NRPE from
the RPMforge repository.

  * To avoid conflict with nagios, nagios-plugins, or nrpe RPM's, I'd
recommend using the templates of the RPMforge or Fedora Core packages and
building RPM's from those, modified to be consistent with your layout and
reporting the conflict with RPMforge packages.

 * The SRPM blows away your existing ~/.cpan/MyConfig.pm setting and doesn't
save it politely.

 * It's not too difficult to actually make RPM's for perl modules, and I'd
like to suggest this instead of the "pull things from CPAN" approach.  Your
"pull from a repository" approach doesn't allow verifiable source control of
what Perl modules are used, and this can be very unstable. It's aggravated
by the huge, huge number of Perl dependencies. It's not unusual for big Perl
packages: I just went through this craziness with Musicbrainz, and it was
*painful* to have to pick and choose the particular CPAN versions of tools
that would play nicely together.

Frankly, most Nagios configuration tools have become abandonware. The best
usable one I could find, without the compilation difficulties I encountered
with Opsview, was Fruity, and it apparently *just became* abandonware. So
I'm actually hoping you'll produce a version that works well with RHEL5 so I
can pass it along to the BBC, where I'm working, as a working commercially
support Nagios configuration tool.

But I never got far enough with simply RPM compiling it to test it, which
left me quite disappointed. Perhaps when my BBC contract ends, if you
haven't made progress towards RHEL 5 compilation, you'd like me to contract
with you to get it RPM bundled and integrated for RHEL 5? Goodness knows
I've done that sort of packaging, and even providing virtual host based
build and test environments.

                        Nico Kadel-Garcia


On 9/12/07, Neil Ferguson <neil.ferguson at altinity.com> wrote:
>
> Hello!
>
> We are looking for a highly motivated individual to join Altinity in the
> role of Software Consultant.
>
> Altinity (www.altinity.com) are leading developers of Open Source
> network management software (www.opsview.org). The role will involve
> installing and configuring our software to meet customer requirements,
> as well as supporting existing systems. Frequent travel within SE
> England will be required with occasional trips abroad. Great
> opportunities with a growing software company.
>
> Location: London, South East
>
> Position Type: Permanent
>
> Salary: 20-30k depending upon skills and experience
>
> Required technical skills:
>
> - Linux, Apache and MySQL
> - Unix shell scripting
> - Basic networking
>
>
> Useful technical skills:
>
> - Nagios
> - Perl
> - Version control software (CVS / SVN)
>
>
> Required non-technical skills:
>
> Candidate must demonstrate strong written and verbal English
> communication.
>
>
> Experience:
>
> 1-2 years of commercial experience, however we would also consider a
> graduate. A Computer Science background would be beneficial but is not
> essential.
>
>
> To apply:
>
> E-mail your CV and a brief description of why you are suitable for this
> position to careers at altinity.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> linuxjobs mailing list
> linuxjobs at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/linuxjobs
>
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