1. DIBBs Brown Dog Tutorial Setup

2. Brown Dog Tutorials Part 1: Part 2:
We will use Brown Dog service hosted at NCSA
How to use Brown Dog API with a python library
Conversion, extraction, and combined examples
Python coding
Part 2:
How to add a convertor to your own Brown Dog instance
How to add an extractor to your own Brown Dog instance
We will use Brown Dog VM (VirtualBox) provided

3. Brown Dog Sign Up To access Brown Dog you need to sign up
Go to and click Sign Up
This account is for Brown Dog instance hosted at NCSA
During the tutorial you will also use a personal Brown Dog instance hosted from within your VM.

4. Brown Dog Sign Up
Fill out form
Click Submit

5. Brown Dog Sign Up

6. Software Requirements for Part 1
Python 2.7.x
Brown dog python library
pip install browndog
Text editor (e.g. notepad++ for windows)

7. How to Prepare Brown Dog VM with VirtualBox
Download OVA file (e.g. bd-tmux.ova) from
In VirtualBox, Select “import appliance” under File menu
Select the downloaded file and click “next”
Then, click “import”

8. How to Connect to Brown Dog VM
Start bd-tmux VM in VirtualBox
Username: bd-tmux
Password: bd-tmux
After VM is up, you can
Login to the Guest VM directly OR
SSH to the Brown Dog VM
We recommend SSH method because you can have multiple sessions (e.g. one for monitoring the service, one for editing)

9. How to Connect to Brown Dog VM
Software required:
Linux and MacOS: ssh, sftp/scp
Windows: any ssh client (PUTTY, winscp, etc)
for example: SmarTTY (ssh/scp client :
You can use SSH to connect the VM
Host: localhost
Port: 9922
Username/password: bd-tmux/bd-tmux
You can use SFTP/SCP to transfer files Brown Dog VM and your machine.
SSH Example:
> ssh –l bd-tmux –p 9922 localhost

10. How to Create a Shared folder
In VirtualBox, you can create a shared folder between host OS and guest OS.
If you setup a shared folder:
You don’t need to use scp/sftp to transfer file to VM
You can edit files by using your editor on host machine
for example, notepad++ to edit a python file in the shared folder on host OS, then execute the python file on guest OS

11. How to Create a Shared folder
Turn off Brown Dog VM
In settings of Brown Dog VM, select “Shared Folders”
Select “Machine Folders” and Click “add …” icon
Select any folder you want to share under Folder Path
Select “Auto-mount” and “Make Permanent”
Click “OK”
Start Brown Dog VM

12. How to Create a Shared Folder
Login to Brown Dog VM
You can see your shared folder under:
/media/sf_shared
Make a symlink to a folder at your home for easy access with following command:
ln –s /media/sf_shared ~/shared

13. Text Editors on VM Nano - Easy to use text editor (similar to notepad)
type nano <filename> in the command prompt
Commands to save are in the editor terminal itself
Vim
vim <filename>
For more details:

14. Linux commands ls: list all files in the current directory/folder
cd: change directory
cd .. : Go up one directory
pwd : present working directory
~/ : home directory (e.g. /home/bd-tmux in the VM)
mkdir dir_name: create/make a new directory
cp <file1> <directory>: copy a file to a directory
cp -R <directory1> <directory2>: copy a directory to another directory
cat <filename>: display the content of the file
scp: (secure copy)
scp -P 9922 <file1>