Home - Shehab Ali

About Me

I’m a System Administrator with over 6 years of experience designing, securing, and maintaining IT infrastructure across enterprise environments. My expertise spans both Windows and Linux ecosystems, with a deep focus on Windows Server, Ubuntu Server, Hyper-V virtualization, cloud integration, and endpoint security.

Throughout my career, I’ve led infrastructure migrations, implemented high-availability environments, automated administrative processes using PowerShell, Bash and Ansible, as well as supported hybrid cloud architectures leveraging Microsoft 365, Azure, and VMware. I’ve worked with businesses of different sizes, from lean startups to multi-site enterprises, delivering scalable, secure, and efficient system support tailored to their needs.

Email: [email protected]
Website https://tecrypts.com
Role System Administrator
Freelance: Depends

My Services

Server Configuration

Deploying and configuring servers for stable, secure, and optimized performance.

Cloud Management

Deploying and maintaining scalable cloud systems for seamless operations.

Cyber Security

Protecting infrastructure against threats through proactive security practices.

Troubleshooting

Diagnosing and resolving system issues to restore performance and stability.

Clients

Fun Facts

Music Producer

Chess Player

Tea Addict

Athlete

Resume

Experience

Dec 2025 - Present

Systems Engineer L2

Peznet Solutions

Deliver tier 2 support across a multi-tenant MSP environment, simultaneously supporting 5+ client organizations spanning IT and OT infrastructures, ensuring SLA adherence and rapid incident resolution.
Lead and support client onboarding processes, including environment discovery, documentation, system standardization, and implementation of monitoring, security, and access control frameworks.
Act as a primary escalation point for tier 1 engineers, resolving complex issues across Microsoft 365, Active Directory, VPN clients, RDS environments, network shares, and line-of-business applications.
Administer and troubleshoot endpoint and identity security solutions including SentinelOne, ArmorPoint, Cybereason, and Microsoft Defender, ensuring endpoint compliance, threat detection, and incident response readiness.
Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation, including runbooks, SOPs, master tracking sheets, and escalation matrices tailored per client, improving operational consistency and knowledge transfer.
Configure and manage Entra ID, Privileged Identity Management, SSO, and Enterprise Applications, enabling secure and scalable authentication across client environments.
Support and maintain Apple device ecosystems using JAMF and ABM, including device enrollment, policy enforcement, application deployment, and lifecycle management.
Deploy, configure, and troubleshoot network infrastructure components, including Meraki and Fortinet firewalls, ensuring secure connectivity, VPN stability, and proper traffic segmentation across client sites.
Operate within multiple ITSM, RMM, and Wiki platforms including BMC Helix, Jira, N-able, ConnectWise, and Confluence, managing ticket queues, prioritization, escalation workflows, remote device operations and KBAs.
Utilize tools such as BeyondTrust and PrinterLogic to manage secure remote access and enterprise print environments, ensuring seamless user experience and centralized control.
Lead internal engineering meetings and biweekly client-facing sessions, providing updates, identifying improvement opportunities, and aligning technical initiatives with business needs.
Manage and optimize service desk operations, including queue ownership, workload distribution, and proactive identification of recurring issues to enhance efficiency and reduce ticket volume.

Nov 2023 - Present

System Administrator

Upwork

Administering and maintaining Windows Server and Ubuntu Server VMs across development, staging, and production tiers, overseeing deployment, in-place upgrades, and migrations, ensuring high availability, performance, and security hardening.
Managing hybrid Microsoft 365 environments including (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Teams, OneDrive, Intune), with advanced configuration of Microsoft Defender, Entra & Purview for compliance & regulatory adherence.
Maintaining Dell PowerEdge Hyper-V and VMware hosts, overseeing host resource allocation, VM resources, snapshot management, hardware diagnostics, and infrastructure scalability.
Configuring production services across Windows Server, including AD DS, GPOs, DNS, DHCP, RDS and Gateway Servers, as well as troubleshooting domain forests, trust relationship and authentication issues.
Configuring and maintaining a wide range of systems and services across Linux environments, including SSH, SFTP servers, MySQL/MariaDB databases, as well as applying access controls and logging practices using UFW and iptables.
Implemented and managed EDR and RMM solutions such as Bitdefender GravityZone for endpoint protection, ConnectWise RMM and NinjaOne for device monitoring, patching, alerting, and remote support.
Deployed and secured Nginx and Apache web servers with reverse proxy and SSL via Certbot, while managing public DNS and domain configurations across Cloudflare, IONOS, Hurricane, and Namecheap.
Developed automation scripts using PowerShell, Bash, and Ansible, with hands-on experience in scheduling operations via CRON, Windows Task Scheduler, RMM platforms, and WSUS.
Designed and implemented backup and replication strategies for virtual machines, SQL databases, and web servers, leveraging tools such as Veeam Backup & Replication, native Hyper-V snapshots, and rsync for Linux environments.
Managed advanced server infrastructure operations including disk management (RAID, partitioning, volume optimization) and Dell iDRAC configuration for remote administration, hardware monitoring, and lifecycle management.
Designed and maintained network architecture across virtualized environments, including VLANs, Hyper-V virtual switches, and VyOS firewall configurations (NAT, routing, and security policies).
Collaborated with external vendors and solution providers such as Bitdefender, NinjaOne, ConnectWise, Wasabi, Huntress and CrowdStrike to evaluate, negotiate, and secure cost-effective service agreements and bundled offerings.
Maintained comprehensive documentation of system configurations, infrastructure changes, and operational procedures to support knowledge continuity, troubleshooting, and team effectiveness.

Jun 2022 - Nov 2023

Dynamics 365 CRM & F&O Technical Support Engineer

Microsoft

Collaborated with certified partners and technical consultants to resolve issues within sandbox and production
systems, identifying root causes and implementing improvement plans.
Provided technical support to end users, system administrators, and solution integrators via phone, email, and chat to diagnose and troubleshoot issues.
Analyzed, triaged, and resolved technical issues related to Dynamics 365 CE, ensuring timely and effective
solutions.
Managed system operations, updates, and maintenance tasks to ensure optimal performance and reliability.
Conducted training sessions and created documentation to improve user proficiency and adoption of Dynamics 365 CE.
Tracked new features and updates, assessed their impact, tested changes, updated documentation, and
communicated with users about these changes.
Collaborated with other teams and stakeholders to ensure seamless integration and support for business processes.
Assisted in designing and implementing workflows, dual-write, extending standard reports, utilizing financial reports and the report designer, creating custom security roles, customizing forms/classes, integrating third-party software, and utilizing data management.
Experienced in LCS, Azure DevOps, BPM/RSAT, Power BI, Azure Data Lake, and Azure Logic Apps.
Identified performance issues by analyzing system health through the environment monitoring tool and investigated long-running, blocking queries and deadlocks.
Utilized Power Automate and Power Apps to automate and enhance data flow within Dynamics 365 F&O.
Developed, tested, and executed custom X++ scripts to resolve issues within the database layer.
Reported undefined and unexpected behavior to the Product Group (PG) and followed up for deliverables/hotfixes accordingly.
Worked with Postman, Trace Parser, SQL Server Management Studio, Visual Studio, IIS, and Windows Server for on-premises deployments.

Education

2019 - 2023

Cairo University

Bachelors of Computer Science (BCS)

Completed intensive bootcamp training with hands-on labs covering cybersecurity fundamentals, ethical hacking techniques, firewall configuration, and vulnerability assessment tools.
Led the university’s cybersecurity team and participated in 3 national CTF competitions in Egypt, two of which we won.

2015 - 2018

Tersa Language School

Science & Technology

Attended Science & Technology classes during high school with a focus on mathematics, physics, and computer administration fundamentals.

Skills

Coding

Python
Ansible
PowerShell
Bash
PHP
MySQL
C++
JavaScript
X++

Languages

English
Arabic
Spanish
Czech

System

Active Directory
Hyper-V / VMWare ESXi
Intune, JAMF, Mosyle, WSUS
NinjaOne, ConnectWise RMM, n-Able RMM
Bitdefender GravityZone, SentinelOne, ArmorPoint, Cyberreason, Defender for Endpoint, Wazuh
Fortinet FortiGate, Cisco Meraki, VyOS
Windows Server (2008 - 2022)
Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora)
Veaam VDP
Nagios
Azure / OCI
Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace
BMX Helix, Jira, ServiceNow
Confluence
Apache, Nginx, IIS, SSH, RDP, RDS, RD Gateway, iDRAC
PostgresSQL, MySQL, MariaDB
LDAP, Kerberos, Entra ID
Samba, NFS, FileZilla Server, vsftpd
SMB, CUPS, PrinterLogic

Knowledge

Cloud Infrastructure (Azure & OCI)
Linux and Windows Management
Identity & Access Management (IAM)
Backup & Disaster Recovery Planning
SIEM & Endpoint Security Tools
Monitoring & Logging (NinjaOne, ConnectWise RMM, n-Able RMM, Nagios)

Enterprise-Scale Hyper-V Infrastructure Overhaul & Automation

Led the complete modernization of a virtual infrastructure involving 6 Hyper-V hosts and 92 VMs, focused on high-availability, automation, and cross-platform deployments.

Performed in-place upgrades of 6 Hyper-V hosts from Windows Server 2016 to 2022 in a live environment.
Managed a mixed deployment of 92 Linux and Windows-based VMs running core services (AD DS, DNS, DHCP, RDS, FS, IIS, NGINX, FTP, MySQL, Nagios).
Integrated Microsoft Intune and Entra Connect to streamline device compliance and hybrid identity management.
Architected a backup and redundancy strategy for both hosts and guest VMs using checkpoints and off-host backups.
Maintained up-to-date documentation with all on-going tasks & infrastructure changes.
Managed 20+ active domains with proper DNS configurations and SSL deployments.

RMM & EDR Deployment, Endpoint Security Hardening & Legacy Systems Modernization

Designed and implemented full-scale endpoint protection and remote monitoring solutions for multiple clients, including the decommissioning of legacy infrastructure and security hardening of Linux and Windows endpoints.

Deployed and configured NinjaOne RMM and ConnectWise RMM across two clients for centralized monitoring, asset management, and automation
Installed and integrated Bitdefender GravityZone EDR and ConnectWise RMM for multi-layered endpoint security.
Led the upgrade of Microsoft 365 tenants to E3 plans to enable Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and to enable integration with Huntress, implementing security baselines, attack surface reduction, and automated threat response.
Modernized legacy Linux systems that were incompatible with EDR solutions — reinstalled and secured with clean Linux images and reconfigured critical services: MySQL, MariaDB, NGINX, Apache.
Discontinued use of outdated SCCM, migrating responsibilities to RMM-based patching and policy management.
Created and enforced automated patching, cleanup, and backup policies across RMM platforms.
Configured firewall and threat protection rules in both GravityZone and Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance Center.
Implemented asset tagging and grouping for all VMs, workstations, and Hyper-V hosts across multiple tenants.
Ensured full compliance with endpoint security and recovery policies, including regular audit trails.

Full-Scope IT Documentation, Executive Support & Infrastructure Governance

Designed and maintained full-stack IT documentation across multiple infrastructures, ensuring that all hardware, network, software, and licensing data is standardized, secure, and accessible for internal teams and audits.

Maintained in-depth documentation for all infrastructure assets including Hyper-V hosts, virtual machines, and workstations — covering OS versions, MAC addresses, internal/public IPs, VM generation type, CPU/RAM/storage allocations, and role-based service deployment.
Documented all SSL certificates with detailed fields including issuer, SANs, binding details, expiry dates, and renewal timelines.
Managed and recorded DNS zones and domain metadata through Cloudflare and Namecheap, ensuring traceability of registrar accounts, TTLs, and SSL chain status.
Oversaw credential management using Devolutions Vault and Bitwarden, enforcing vault-based access control, MFA, and secure storage for administrative logins.
Tracked Microsoft 365 tenant data including user roles, license assignments (E3, Business Premium), Intune compliance policies, Defender for Endpoint coverage, and partner association details under MPN/CSP.
Provided direct technical support to the CEO and executive leadership, ensuring secure device provisioning, account access, and troubleshooting.
Liaised with data center personnel for hardware-level tasks, remote diagnostics, and iDRAC sessions.
Standardized RMM-based documentation across NinjaOne and ConnectWise, tagging VMs and workstations, and maintaining patch, cleanup, and backup policy records.
Logged internal SOPs, support request flows, escalation procedures, and configuration baselines to support IT operations and business continuity.

Blog

April 15, 2025 How AI Is Transforming System Administration (and How to Stay Ahead)

Intro: Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept—it’s rapidly integrating into day-to-day IT operations. From proactive threat detection to…