# Prerequisites for working with Amazon Resource Groups
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Before you get started working with resource groups, be sure you have an active Amazon account with existing resources and appropriate rights to tag resources and create groups.

**Topics**
+ [Sign up for Amazon](#gettingstarted-prereqs-signup)
+ [Create resources](#gettingstarted-prereqs-create)
+ [Set up permissions](gettingstarted-prereqs-permissions.md)

## Sign up for Amazon
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If you do not have an Amazon Web Services account, use the following procedure to create one.

**To sign up for Amazon Web Services**

1. Open [http://www.amazonaws.cn/](http://www.amazonaws.cn/) and choose **Sign Up**.

1. Follow the on-screen instructions.

## Create resources
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You can create an empty resource group, but won't be able to perform any tasks on resource group members until there are resources in the group. For more information about the supported resource types, see [Resource types you can use with Amazon Resource Groups and Tag Editor](supported-resources.md).