AWS From Scratch 01 - creating an account

In this series of blogs I'll go through everything you need to know to setup AWS.

Setting up an Account

The very first thing you will need to do is setup an AWS account.

Open your web browser and navigate to https://aws.amazon.com/, then click on the "Create an AWS Account" button.

Creating an Account Name

This will bring up a form asking for a "Root user email address" and "AWS account name". 

The root user is the super user for the AWS account you are creating. You'll need to provide a valid email address for the root user incase you ever need to reset your password.

The AWS account name is just a name that you will associate with this new account. If it is a personal account that you are using for learning AWS you can call it something like "AlexLearningAWS" or if you would like this to be the account used for a business you are creating, you can call it something like "CookieCuttersByAlex". You can always change the name of the account later, so don't put too much thought into this name just yet.

Once you have entered your email and picked a name for the AWS account, go ahead and click "Verify email address.

A new form will pop up asking you to verify the email address you entered for the Root user.

Check your email, you should have received a message like this:

Copy the number in the email and paste it into the "Verification code" field and click "Verify".

Setting a Password for the Root User

If everything worked as expected you should get a new screen that asks you to create a password for the root user.

I highly recommend you use a password manager like 1Password to generate a complex long password for the root user (at least 20 characters long).

Once you have entered the password twice click "Continue (step 1 of 5)".

Filling in the Details

You will be asked if you plan to use this account for Business or Personal use. Based on your selection you will have to fill in the contact information requested. The only difference between personal and business is that AWS asks for your organization name.

Click "Continue (step 2 of 5) when you are finished filling out the contact information.

In step 3 you will need to supply some billing information so AWS knows how to charge you for it's services.

In step 4 AWS will ask you to verify your phone number. They can send you an sms or a voice call. Fill out the requested information and verify your phone.

Complete Sign Up

Step 5 "Sign up for AWS"! In this last step pick the support plan that meets your needs, then click "Complete sign up".

There are a lot of great resources on this welcome page go ahead and poke around.

Keep in mind that you can create multiple AWS accounts for multiple purposes, so you might want one for personal development and experimentation or learning, and another for your business.