# Setting up Amazon SQS
Setting up

Before you can use Amazon SQS for the first time, you must complete the following steps:

## Step 1: Create an Amazon Web Services account and IAM user


To access any Amazon service, you first need to create an [Amazon Web Services account](http://www.amazonaws.cn/), an Amazon.com account that can use Amazon products. You can use your Amazon Web Services account to view your activity and usage reports and to manage authentication and access.

To avoid using your Amazon Web Services account root user for Amazon SQS actions, it is a best practice to create an IAM user for each person who needs administrative access to Amazon SQS.

### Sign up for an Amazon Web Services account


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.

Amazon 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 [http://www.amazonaws.cn/](http://www.amazonaws.cn/) and choosing **My Account**.

### Secure IAM users


After you sign up for an Amazon Web Services account, safeguard your administrative user by turning on multi-factor authentication (MFA). For instructions, see [Enable a virtual MFA device for an IAM user (console)](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_mfa_enable_virtual.html#enable-virt-mfa-for-iam-user) in the *IAM User Guide*.

To give other users access to your Amazon Web Services account resources, create IAM users. To secure your IAM users, turn on MFA and only give the IAM users the permissions needed to perform their tasks.

For more information about creating and securing IAM users, see the following topics in the *IAM User Guide*: 
+ [Creating an IAM user in your Amazon Web Services account](https://docs.amazonaws.cn//IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_users_create.html)
+ [Access management for Amazon resources](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access.html)
+ [Example IAM identity-based policies](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_examples.html)

## Step 2: Grant programmatic access


To use Amazon SQS actions (for example, using Java or through the Amazon Command Line Interface), you need an access key ID and a secret access key.

**Note**  
The access key ID and secret access key are specific to Amazon Identity and Access Management. Don't confuse them with credentials for other Amazon services, such as Amazon EC2 key pairs.

Users need programmatic access if they want to interact with Amazon outside of the Amazon Web Services Management Console. The Amazon APIs and the Amazon Command Line Interface require access keys. Whenever possible, create temporary credentials that consist of an access key ID, a secret access key, and a security token that indicates when the credentials expire.

To grant users programmatic access, choose one of the following options.


****  

| Which user needs programmatic access? | To | By | 
| --- | --- | --- | 
| IAM | Use short-term credentials to sign programmatic requests to the Amazon CLI or Amazon APIs (directly or by using the Amazon SDKs). | Following the instructions in [Using temporary credentials with Amazon resources](https://docs.amazonaws.cn//IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_temp_use-resources.html) in the IAM User Guide. | 
| IAM | (Not recommended)Use long-term credentials to sign programmatic requests to the Amazon CLI or Amazon APIs (directly or by using the Amazon SDKs). | Following the instructions in [Managing access keys for IAM users](https://docs.amazonaws.cn//IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_access-keys.html) in the IAM User Guide. | 

## Step 3: Get ready to use the example code


This guide includes examples that use the Amazon SDK for Java. To run the example code, follow the set-up instructions in [Getting Started with Amazon SDK for Java 2.0](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/sdk-for-java/latest/developer-guide/). 

You can develop Amazon applications in other programming languages, such as Go, JavaScript, Python and Ruby. For more information, see [Tools to Build on Amazon](https://www.amazonaws.cn/developer/tools/#sdk).

**Note**  
You can explore Amazon SQS without writing code with tools such as the Amazon Command Line Interface (Amazon CLI) or Windows PowerShell. You can find Amazon CLI examples in the [Amazon SQS section](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/reference/sqs/index.html) of the *Amazon CLI Command Reference*. You can find Windows PowerShell examples in the Amazon Simple Queue Service section of the *[Amazon Tools for PowerShell Cmdlet Reference](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/powershell/latest/reference/)*.

## Next steps


You are now ready for [Getting started](sqs-getting-started.md) with managing Amazon SQS queues and messages using the Amazon Web Services Management Console.