Your First AWS Account (1/3) - Create It

OK, now it's time for the fun stuff!  Owning an account with Amazon Web Services is an amazing thing.  As an individual, having these kinds of computing resources available at your fingertips would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.

First off, if you haven't read/understood the four-part series on "Getting Ready for AWS Securely" (Your Account, Passwords, Multiple Factor Authentication, Wrapping Up), please do so now - an AWS account is a powerful thing, and it's important to keep it secure.  Secondly, before diving in, you'll want to have these things ready:

• A unique email address to tie the account to
• A unique, super strong password to use
• A telephone number where you can be reached while creating the account (since you will receive a call at that number, at which point you will need to speak or enter a PIN that's displayed to you on the screen)
• A valid credit card (which is required even if you fully plan to stay within the Free Tier, since nothing will actually be preventing you from allocating non-free resources in your account; in addition, Amazon needs this information to help combat nefarious usages of their services)
• An MFA device (either physical or virtual, which we will use in part 3)
• Questions and answers selected for the three security challenge questions (which we will also use in part 3, and where I'll list the available options)

Finally, please feel encouraged to read through this three-part series before actually jumping in - that way you'll know exactly what to expect.

OK, with all that out of the way, let's get started!  To create your account:

• Go to https://aws.amazon.com/

You will be on the main "Amazon Web Services" page.

• Click on the "Create a Free Account" button

You should be on the "Sign In or Create an AWS Account" page.

Note - if you instead find yourself on a sign-in page that has fields for "Account", "User Name", and "Password", it means AWS has remembered that you recently signed in as an IAM user for another AWS account.  Since you don't want to do that now, click on the link (in very small print below the form) that says "Sign-in using root account credentials"

• In the "E-mail or mobile number" field enter the email address you are using for this account
• Select the "I am a new user." option
• Click the "Sign in using our secure server" button

You will now be on the "Login Credentials" page.

• In the "My name is" field, enter your name, or any other name you would like to use to refer to the account
• In the "My e-mail address is" field enter the email address you are using for this account
• In the first "Type it again" field re-enter the same email address
• In the "Enter a new password" field put in a super strong password that's only used for this account
• In the second "Type it again" field put it in again
• Click the "Create Account" button

This will bring you to the "Contact Information" page.

Note - if you have recently signed into AWS as an IAM user, you may be redirected to the wrong page at this point.  If so, just go back to https://aws.amazon.com/ and click the "Create a Free Account" button again, which should take you to the right place.

• Select the "Personal Account" option
• Fill out the required fields "Full Name", "Country", "Address", "City", "State / Province or Region", "Postal Code", and "Phone Number"
• Type in the displayed "Security Check" (CAPTCHA) value (click the "Refresh Image" link if you get an unreadable image; also, I don't see an accessible option here for the visually impaired)
• Read and understand the "AWS Customer Agreement" at https://aws.amazon.com/agreement/
• Assuming you agree, select the "AWS Customer Agreement" option
• Click the "Create Account and Continue" button
• You will soon receive an email "Welcome to Amazon Web Services" containing some helpful information and links

 At this point you will be on the "Payment Information" page.

• Fill out the "Credit/Debit Card Number", "Expiration Date", and "Cardholder's Name" fields
• Ensure that "Use my contact address" is selected if the card billing address should match what was entered earlier; otherwise select "Use a new address" and fill out the required fields "Full Name", "Country", "Address", "City", "State / Province or Region", "Postal Code", and "Phone Number"
• Click the "Continue" button

This will take you to the "Identity Verification" page, which has three sections.  In first section "1. Provide a telephone number":

• Fill out the fields for "Country Code" (e.g., for the United States, this is "1"), "Phone Number" (the phone number at which you are reachable when doing this step), and "Ext" (any extension that must be dialed after connection to reach you)
• Click the "Call Me Now" button

The page will switch to the second section "2. Call in progress", which will display a PIN.  Within seconds you will receive a telephone call on the number you gave, with an automated assistant asking for the PIN:

• Enter the PIN on the phone keypad, or speak the digits very clearly one at a time

Within a few more seconds, the page will then switch to the last section "3. Identity verification complete":

• Click on the "Continue to select your Support Plan" button

You will now be on the "Support Plan" page, which will list the available options and descriptions:

• Basic (Free) - Contact Customer Service for account and billing questions, receive help for resources that don't pass system health checks, and access the AWS Community Forums.
• Developer ($49/month) - Get started on AWS - ask technical questions and get a response to your web case within 12 hours during local business hours.
• Business (Starting at $100/month - Pricing Example) - Recommended - 24/7/365 real-time assistance by phone and chat, a 1 hour response to web cases, and help with 3rd party software. Access AWS Trusted Advisor to increase performance, fault tolerance, security, and potentially save money.
• Enterprise - 15 minute response to web cases, an assigned technical account manager (TAM) who is an expert in your use case, and white-glove case handling that notifies your TAM and the service engineering team of a critical issue.  If you select this option, you will not be charged immediately. We will contact you to discuss your needs and finalize the signup.

You can always increase your support level at any time in the future, but for right now:

• Select the "Basic (Free)" option
• Click the "Continue" button

This will take you to the "Welcome to Amazon Web Services" page, where you will see:

Thank you for creating an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Account. We are in the process of activating your account. For most customers, activation only takes a couple minutes, but it can sometimes take a few hours if additional account verification is required. We will notify you by email when your account is activated.

In my case, within seconds I received an email titled "AWS Support (Basic) Sign-Up Confirmation", and then another one titled "Your AWS Account is Ready - Get Started Now".

Now, from the "Welcome to Amazon Web Services" page:

• Click on the "Sign Into the Console" button (or, equivalently, under the "My Account" menu at the top, click on the "AWS Management Console" link)

You should be on the "Sign In or Create an AWS Account" page.

Note - if you instead find yourself on a sign-in page that has fields for "Account", "User Name", and "Password", it means AWS has remembered that you recently signed in as an IAM user for another AWS account.  Since you don't want to do that now, click on the link (in very small print below the form) that says "Sign-in using root account credentials"

• In the "E-mail or mobile number" field enter the email address you used for this account
• Select the "I am a returning user and my password is:" option, and in the field below enter the password you designated for this account
• Click the "Sign in using our secure server" button

Voilà!  You should now find yourself signed in to the AWS Management Console for your shiny new account, ready to do amazing things.  Feel free to poke around and explore.  (Just be careful not to accidentally allocate any resources before you're ready - it's possible to cost yourself real money that way!  But as long as you don't click any button that says "Create", you're probably safe.)

The array of available services can be overwhelming, but take your time to get to know what's there.  Amazon makes a lot of information available via links from various pages in the console, and there's also a wealth of knowledge online from various sources.

(Jump to Part 2, Configure It)