Overview

This workshop is designed to be run on pre-imaged Amazon Web Services (AWS) virtual machine instances that will be provided to you on the first day of the workshop. All of the data and most of the software used in the workshop are hosted on your virtual machine.

Since you will be accessing your virtual machine through your own computer (your laptop), some additional software, detailed below, must be installed on your computer. Primarily, you’ll need three things:

1. A gwu.edu account - If you’re from Children’s Hospital, you might not have a gwu.edu account yet.
2. Windows users may need to set up a way to connect to a cloud computer (see below).
3. Any spreadsheet program that you can use to view files in formats such as Excel, CSV, Text-delimited, etc.

Please follow the instructions below to prepare your computer for the workshop:

gwu.edu Account

All workshop participants will need a GW UserID to access the cloud computing resources we will be using during the workshop.

If you are affiliated with Children’s Hospital or another GW affiliate institution, you might not yet have a GW UserID. If you think you might not have a GW UserID and we have not reached out to you to confirm your UserID, please let us know as soon as possible.

Software Requirements

Windows users only: Setting up software you can use to connect to your cloud computer

Windows

• Open your Command Prompt app by searching for “cmd”. At the command prompt, type ssh. Confirm that this prints out the usage information for the ssh command. If the result is “Command not found” then you have a few options:
  • Set up the Ubuntu Subsystem for Windows. This option is only available for Windows 10 - detailed instructions are available here.
  • Another option is to install the MobaXterm desktop app. Please follow the download instructions at mobaxterm.mobatek.net to download the free edition.

Spreadsheet program (if you don’t already have one)

This lesson requires a working spreadsheet program. If you don’t have a spreadsheet program already, you can use LibreOffice. It’s a free, open source spreadsheet program. Directions to install are included for each Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems below.

Windows

• Install LibreOffice by going to the installation page. The version for Windows should automatically be selected. Click Download Version X.X.X (whichever is the most recent version). You will go to a page that asks about a donation, but you don’t need to make one. Your download should begin automatically.
• Once the installer is downloaded, double click on it and LibreOffice should install.

Mac OS X

• Install LibreOffice by going to the installation page. The version for Mac should automatically be selected. Click Download Version X.X.X (whichever is the most recent version). You will go to a page that asks about a donation, but you don’t need to make one. Your download should begin automatically.
• Once the installer is downloaded, double click on it and LibreOffice should install.

Linux

• Install LibreOffice by going to the installation page. The version for Linux should automatically be selected. Click Download Version X.X.X (whichever is the most recent version). You will go to a page that asks about a donation, but you don’t need to make one. Your download should begin automatically.
• Once the installer is downloaded, double click on it and LibreOffice should install.