Vladimir Orekhov
Network Administrator and IT Professional
Network Administrator with nearly a decade of hands-on experience running enterprise infrastructure for a Minnesota county government, including networks, servers, security, web, and the homelab that quietly became a small datacenter. Track record of finishing migrations cleanly, hardening what's there, and shipping side projects in PHP, Python, and JavaScript on the side.
Certifications
- CCNP Enterprise | Cisco Certified Network Professional | February 2022 to February 2025
- RHCSA | Red Hat Certified System Administrator | March 2022 to March 2025
- CompTIA Network+ | March 2019 to March 2022
- CompTIA A+ | March 2016 to March 2022
Technical Expertise
- Routing and switching: TCP/IP, IPv4/IPv6, VLANs, ACLs, STP/MST/RPVST+, CDP/LLDP, NAT, DNS, DHCP, FHRP, LACP/PAgP, EIGRP, BGP, OSPF, RIP
- Wireless: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax
- Cisco hardware: ASA 5505/5510/5506-X/5516-X, Firepower, Catalyst 2950/2960/3750/4948/9200/9300, ISR 1841/2811, C8231-G2
- Firewalls and security: pfSense (Suricata IDS, Zeek NSM, pfBlockerNG), Wazuh SIEM, Splunk, Bitdefender GravityZone, Darktrace
- Tools: Nmap, Wireshark, tcpdump, Nuclei, Metasploit, netmiko, scrapli, napalm, nornir
- Server and virtualization: Windows Server 2K+, Rocky/CentOS/Debian, Hyper-V, VMware ESXi, Proxmox VE, LXC, ZFS
- Cloud and overlay: Linode, Cloudflare (R2/DNS), Tailscale, Let's Encrypt, Caddy, nginx
- Databases: PostgreSQL, MariaDB, ClickHouse, SQLite, PgBouncer
- Languages: PHP, Python, JavaScript, Bash, PowerShell, awk, regex, HTML/CSS
- Identity and productivity: Active Directory, Microsoft 365 (G3/G5), Microsoft Teams, Power Automate
- Cabling: CAT5e/CAT6 with TIA/EIA-568-A/B
- Hardware: Dell PowerEdge R430/R440/R710, custom 2U firewall builds, GPU inference workstations
Experience
Network Administrator | Aitkin County, MN | 2017 to Present
- Sole administrator of IT infrastructure for ~209 employees across Courthouse, Government Center, Health and Human Services, and Sheriff's Department
- Replaced aging Cisco 2851 border router with C8231-G2 in a live cutover with zero downtime
- Administer Cisco Firepower perimeter, ASA 5516-X firewalls, and Catalyst 9200/9300 switching across all county sites
- Migrated the CAMA property assessment database from a legacy IBM AS/400 to PostgreSQL
- Led the county-wide VoIP-to-Microsoft-Teams cutover, replacing the legacy phone system
- Built a Teams-integrated intranet staff directory and a custom intranet portal for internal communications and document management
- Brought the public county website to WCAG 2.2 AA + AAA compliance (verified by axe-core, 0 violations across 20+ pages) ahead of the DOJ Title II deadline
- Deployed LibreBooking for county vehicle reservations
- Stood up
pwr.aitkincountymn.govon Rocky Linux to receive Power Automate webhooks for form workflows - Designed a multi-tiered backup server using hardlinked rotation from daily through multi-year retention
- Implemented VLAN segregation, ACLs, and security policies across all networks
- Deployed Splunk and Wazuh for centralized logging, monitoring, and security alerting
- Designed and deployed redundant multi-site network infrastructure between county facilities
- Implemented secure remote access for staff and third-party vendors
- Manage a mixed fleet of Windows and Linux servers
- Wrote automation scripts in Python, PowerShell, and Bash for routine sysadmin work and system integrations
- Coordinate with Minnesota state agencies (BCA, MNIT) for secure data access and compliance
- Authored comprehensive IT documentation, runbooks, and standard operating procedures
- Lead all technology modernization initiatives and infrastructure upgrades
IT Field Technician | CompLogic | 2017
- Installed and configured computer systems for business clients
- Designed and implemented SOHO wireless networking solutions
- Provided on-site technical support and troubleshooting
Field Service Specialist | Digital Reception Services | 2011 to 2013
- Installed and maintained DISH satellite TV systems
- Optimized signal strength through effective mounting procedures
- Performed system diagnostics and maintenance
Selected Personal Projects
- Clipry / Clipry.AI: Flagship SaaS clipboard and media manager (PHP/PostgreSQL on Linode, Cloudflare R2 storage, Stripe billing, async AI auto-tagging via Gemini and Claude). Built end-to-end deploy pipeline with rb1-rb4 rollback rotation, 900+ test suite, stress-tested at 1,100 req/s, zero Nuclei findings on prod. app.clipry.com (opens in new tab) ai.clipry.com (opens in new tab)
- Bob: Multi-instance self-hosted AI chat interface running on four Linode boxes (Python/Flask backend, vanilla JS/PHP frontend) with Anthropic and OpenRouter routing, voice transcription, and image generation
- TechWalrus: ProcessWire tech-news site with custom dark theme, embedded Flatboard forum, and developer tooling (JSON/Base64/JWT/URL utilities). Built the Verity content pipeline: n8n + YouTube/Reddit/HN APIs + Claude API to draft articles. techwalrus.com (opens in new tab)
- Homelab: Proxmox VE on Ryzen 7 5700X / 128 GB DDR4 / 2x2TB NVMe ZFS mirror running 20+ LXCs. Custom 2U pfSense firewall with Suricata IDS, Zeek NSM, pfBlockerNG (~48k threat IPs), and MaxMind GeoIP enrichment. Self-hosted Forgejo, Semaphore (Ansible), NetBox IPAM, Infisical, Firecrawl, Browserless, SearXNG, Metabase, Zulip, Teleport, Oxidized, LibreNMS, Uptime Kuma, Grafana/Prometheus/Loki, Wazuh SIEM, and a unified API gateway fronting it all. Tailscale overlay across 13+ machines.
- Browser Extensions: Firefox MV2 and Chrome MV3 extension toolchain (current: Clipry AI extension v2.1) with custom build/package scripts
- Aitkin County public website: Complete WCAG 2.2 AA/AAA-compliant redesign with a
filemtime()cache-busting layer for the Bludit CMS. aitkincountymn.gov (opens in new tab) - Photography portfolio: vladorekhov.com (opens in new tab)
- Misc side sites: peeklog.com (logging utility), ziptrails.com, ipwalrus.com, vladpc.com, fatforms.com, bustedpedals.com, angryfitness.com, vlad.red
Contact
- Location: Aitkin, MN
- Email: vlad@orekhov.org
Websites
- orekhov.org (opens in new tab)
- clipry.com (opens in new tab)
- ai.clipry.com (opens in new tab)
- vladorekhov.com (opens in new tab)
- techwalrus.com (opens in new tab)
- aitkincountymn.gov (opens in new tab)
- peeklog.com (opens in new tab)
- ziptrails.com (opens in new tab)
- bustedpedals.com (opens in new tab)
- fatforms.com (opens in new tab)
- ipwalrus.com (opens in new tab)
- vladpc.com (opens in new tab)
- angryfitness.com (opens in new tab)
- orekhovgroup.com (opens in new tab)
- vlad.red (opens in new tab)