Set up - Amazon CloudFront
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Set up

This topic describes preliminary steps, such as creating an Amazon Web Services account, to prepare you to use Amazon CloudFront.

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/ and choose Sign Up.

  2. 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/ 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) 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:

Choose how to access CloudFront

You can access Amazon CloudFront in the following ways:

  • Amazon Web Services Management Console – The procedures throughout this guide explain how to use the Amazon Web Services Management Console to perform tasks.

  • Amazon SDKs – If you're using a programming language that Amazon provides an SDK for, you can use an SDK to access CloudFront. SDKs simplify authentication, integrate easily with your development environment, and provide access to CloudFront commands. For more information, see Using CloudFront with an Amazon SDK.

  • CloudFront API – If you're using a programming language that an SDK isn't available for, see the Amazon CloudFront API Reference for information about API actions and about how to make API requests.

  • Amazon CLI – The Amazon Command Line Interface (Amazon CLI) is a unified tool for managing Amazon Web Services. For information about how to install and configure the Amazon CLI, see Install or update to the latest version of the Amazon CLI in the Amazon Command Line Interface User Guide.

  • Tools for Windows PowerShell – If you have experience with Windows PowerShell, you might prefer to use Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell. For more information, see Installing the Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell in the Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell User Guide.