L3 · Routing
Multi-area OSPF
Three sites, two areas, route summarization and failure testing on Containerlab.
Planned
Myrtle Beach, SC / Networking · Systems · Automation
Zach Thomas
Network Engineer & Instructor
I build, run and automate networks, plus the servers and tooling around them, end to end.
- 10+ years in IT
- HPE Aruba Certified Associate, Switching
- UniFi · Aruba · VLANs
- Studying: CCNA 2.0
- Building: ZT Tech Academy
ZT Tech Academy / Networking & IT training
Learn networking by doing it
Aruba-focused, hands-on courses with free browser labs. Start with Network Fundamentals, which is free.
Lab notebook
Built, broken and written up
Each lab is a real topology with configs in Git and notes on what failed. The LED shows where each one stands.
L3 · BGP
eBGP between sites
Peering, route filtering and VRF separation across a multi-site homelab topology.
Planned
Packets · Troubleshooting
Wireshark case files
Real problems traced at the packet level: DHCP, DNS, TLS and TCP, one write-up each.
Planned
Want to practice? The ZT Tech Academy has free browser-based Aruba CX switch labs, no login needed. Try the labs →
Projects
Things I've built
Web app
Tack a Task
A sticky-note to-do app with user accounts, built and deployed on my own server.
ESP32 · Firmware
NHL Goal Light
A goal light that fires when your NHL team scores, from the hardware to the firmware.
Django · Training
ZT Tech Academy
Hands-on Aruba and networking courses on a custom LMS, with free browser labs.
About
Idea to deployed
I work on networks, servers and the applications that run on them, and I'm comfortable owning an environment from the first idea to a running deployment.
AI-assisted development is how I move faster, not a separate specialty. The fundamentals still decide whether something holds up in production.
$ whoami
zach thomas
$ ls skills/
networking/ systems/ apps/ automation/
$ ./status.sh
● all systems nominal
Let's talk networking
Questions, lab ideas or a project to compare notes on? Send a message.