Create an AWS account

The AMS program requires the provisioning of a new Amazon Web Services (AWS) account. Step by step instructions are available in the following video: How do I create and activate a new Amazon Web Services account? The simple steps are:

Sign up for an AWS account

If you do not have an AWS account, complete the following steps to create one.

To sign up for an AWS account

1. Open https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup.

2. Follow the online instructions.

   Part of the sign-up procedure involves receiving a phone call and entering a verification code on the phone keypad.

   When you sign up for an AWS account, an AWS account root user is created. The root user has access to all AWS services and resources in the account. As a security best practice, assign administrative access to a user, and use only the root user to perform tasks that require root user access.

AWS sends you a confirmation email after the sign-up process is complete. At any time, you can view your current account activity and manage your account by going to https://aws.amazon.com/ and choosing My Account.

Create a user with administrative access

After you sign up for an AWS account, secure your AWS account root user, enable AWS IAM Identity Center, and create an administrative user so that you don't use the root user for everyday tasks.

Secure your AWS account root user

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console as the account owner by choosing Root user and entering your AWS account email address. On the next page, enter your password.

   For help signing in by using root user, see Signing in as the root user in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

2. Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your root user.

   For instructions, see Enable a virtual MFA device for your AWS account root user (console) in the IAM User Guide.

Create a user with administrative access

1. Enable IAM Identity Center.

   For instructions, see Enabling AWS IAM Identity Center in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

2. In IAM Identity Center, grant administrative access to a user.

   For a tutorial about using the IAM Identity Center directory as your identity source, see Configure user access with the default IAM Identity Center directory in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

Sign in as the user with administrative access

• To sign in with your IAM Identity Center user, use the sign-in URL that was sent to your email address when you created the IAM Identity Center user.

  For help signing in using an IAM Identity Center user, see Signing in to the AWS access portal in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

Assign access to additional users

1. In IAM Identity Center, create a permission set that follows the best practice of applying least-privilege permissions.

   For instructions, see Create a permission set in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

2. Assign users to a group, and then assign single sign-on access to the group.

   For instructions, see Add groups in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

Note

If you already have an account, you can go to the AWS Pricing page and click Create a Free Account. Be sure to sign up for the EC2 Service, at least. Signing up for one service allows you access to all services in AWS. You are charged only for the services that you use.

If you plan to link your new account to a payer account for the purposes of consolidated billing, you do not need to enter payment method information when prompted. Instead, once you reach the screen to enter credit card information, simply navigate away. You will need the email address associated with the payer account to send a consolidated billing/linked account request which is detailed in the next section.

Important

It is critical that you ensure that an email address and phone number are associated with the account so you receive responses to potential security incidents. The phone number and email address for the account cannot be changed without resetting the account password, which is a significant undertaking for an AMS root account. To ensure that these values are stable, it is critical to select contact information not associated with individuals, which can change. Choose an email alias that can point to a group. Follow this same best practice in selecting a phone number: choose a number that can point to a group or to a number owned by the company and not an individual.