Site reliability · Systems · Automation · Observability
Infrastructure that stays up when everyone shows up at once.
I'm Aleksandar Lujic, a systems engineer and SRE at Ticketmaster since 2011. I own reliability for a hosted, high-availability platform: 5,000+ servers across two data centers and AWS, including a ~700-server Remote Desktop layer. Every incident ends as an automated check, a remediation tool and a runbook.
Services
What I can take off your plate
The same work I do every day at scale, sized for your team.
Infrastructure automation
Servers and configuration defined in code and kept in Git, so every build is repeatable and every change is reviewed and can be rolled back.
Automated build pipelines
From commit to running service without hand steps: build, test, deploy, and post-deploy validation that catches drift before customers do.
Monitoring and observability
Metrics pipelines, dashboards and alert routing that page the right person for the right reason. Includes migrations off legacy monitoring.
Database performance
Slow queries, transaction-log analysis, schema cataloging, uptime and capacity for hosted database environments.
Windows and Remote Desktop at scale
Session hosts, gateways and connection brokers, Group Policy and Active Directory, with validation that runs after every reboot.
Hybrid data center and AWS
Workloads split sensibly between your own hardware and the cloud, with DNS, load balancing and connectivity that hold up under load.
Architecture and roadmap
Infrastructure planned around where the business is going
Beyond fixing today's problems, I help you design the platform the next few years need: what to build, what to buy, what to retire and in what order, tied back to the outcomes the business cares about.
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Assess
Current state
- Inventory, dependencies and single points of failure
- Reliability, capacity and cost baseline
- Where the team loses time to manual work
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Design
Target architecture
- What runs on-prem and what moves to AWS
- High availability and disaster recovery approach
- Reliability targets matched to business impact
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Build
Phased delivery
- Infrastructure as code in Git
- Automated build and deploy pipelines
- Migrations in batches, each with a rollback
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Run
Operate and improve
- Dashboards, alert routing and runbooks
- Regular capacity and cost reviews
- Architecture governance as plans change
Deliverables: a written target architecture and a phased roadmap with milestones, risks and rough effort for each phase. It's the same practice I use on a 5,000+ server platform, scaled to your size.
Recent work
What the last six months looked like
Self-deploying validation for ~700 session hosts
Runs after every nightly reboot, deploys through SHA-256 hash-verified scheduled tasks, and reports per farm to Slack with a combined HTML report. Each release closed another class of configuration drift.
Re-engineered for fleet scale
Buffered I/O, batched driver and CIM queries, and a cache-first API layer with a 24-hour TTL to stop thundering-herd load. Same results, much faster, and all-pass logs cut from ~400 lines to ~55.
Gateway and broker validation
Built from a production rebuild incident. It caught a TLS cipher policy collision that was silently breaking customer browsers, and a missing DNS record behind a major password-reset incident.
Schema library for AI assistants
A catalog of 5,500+ database objects across two databases, rebuilt by a two-step pipeline, with human notes that survive every refresh. AI engineering assistants read it automatically during database work.
Monitoring migration, end to end
Tag mapping, design with senior architects, batched delivery and Prometheus/PagerDuty integration planning, plus 19+ SQL correctness fixes to the database metrics.
Safe remediation automation
Profile and font-cache cleanup and Telegraf repair with safety guards, dry-run mode, audit logs and Slack notices, run by a central daily orchestrator on a staggered schedule.
Career
Almost 16 years at Ticketmaster, one step up at a time
From venue hardware to owning reliability for a hosted platform. Two Rock Star Awards along the way (2012 and 2014).
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Today
Systems Engineer / Site Reliability Engineer
Own reliability and infrastructure engineering for a hosted platform serving clients worldwide.
- 5,000+ servers across two data centers and AWS; full ownership of the ~700-server Remote Desktop layer
- Database performance, web services, connectivity, custom sites and workflows through Ansible and Git
- Fully automated build pipelines; monitoring through OpenTelemetry, Telegraf and Grafana
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2019
Senior Systems Engineer
Reliability ownership of the hosted platform, architecture governance, cross-team technical guidance and team training programs.
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2017
Systems Engineer III
Deployed and upgraded systems across multiple environments and led the international environment. Brought in Kubernetes, ActiveMQ, Kafka, Splunk and AWS services.
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2014
Systems Engineer I
Improved uptime for the international hosted environment and started mentoring and training new engineers.
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2013
Associate Systems Engineer
Moved into database and systems support, learning SQL, PowerShell and Active Directory on the job.
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2012
Field IT Advanced Systems Support Specialist
Promoted to a specialized national team: resolved escalated connectivity issues and onboarded new clients and venues onto the Ticketmaster ecosystem.
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Feb 2011
IT Technician
Serviced ticket scanning, ticket printing and access-control network equipment at client venues.
Before Ticketmaster
Contracted IT Technician
Contracted through TEKsystems to Verizon Wireless, Charles Schwab and Abrazo Healthcare: desktop and retail support, hardware and software rollouts, vendor coordination and staff training on new equipment.
PC Technician
PC builds and configuration, data recovery and migration, malware removal, home network setup. Circuit City Hero Award, 2004.
Toolbox
What I work with
- Automation
- Ansible, Git, PowerShell (advanced), automated validation frameworks, build pipelines
- Observability
- OpenTelemetry, Telegraf, Prometheus, Grafana, PagerDuty, Splunk, Kibana
- Platforms
- Windows Server 2012 R2–2019, Remote Desktop Services, VMware, AWS (EC2, ELB, Route 53, RDS), Linux
- Data
- SQL Anywhere 17, T-SQL / Watcom SQL, schema cataloging, transaction-log analysis
- Messaging
- Kafka, ActiveMQ, Kubernetes
- Network & identity
- IIS, Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS, LAN/WAN/WLAN
Working together
How a project runs
A free first conversation
We confirm the work is something I can deliver and that the fit works for both sides. If it doesn't, I'll tell you, at no charge.
Scoped before we start
A written scope with what's included, what isn't, and what done looks like.
Everything lands in your Git
Playbooks, pipelines and dashboards live in your repositories. You own all of it.
Handover included
Runbooks and a walkthrough at the end, so your team can run it without me.
Background
- B.S. Business ManagementUniversity of Phoenix
- A.A.S. Computer Information SystemsMaricopa CC
- Ticketmaster Rock Star Award2012, 2014
- Circuit City Hero Award2004
I run my own lab, too
A Proxmox virtualization host with several VMs behind an OPNsense firewall, nightly backups and a daily security check, all set up from scripts. It's where I try things before I recommend them.
Contact
Tell me what's slowing you down
Send a few lines about your stack and what you'd like fixed. The first conversation is free. I take on a small number of projects at a time and reply within two business days.
Prefer your own email?
aleks@lujic-techconsulting.com
Already a client? Email support@lujic-techconsulting.com so it lands in the right place.