# Setting up Amazon MQ
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Before you can use Amazon MQ, you must complete the following steps.

**Topics**
+ [Step 1: Prerequisites](#create-aws-account)
+ [Step 2: create a user and get your Amazon credentials](#create-iam-user)
+ [Get Ready to Use the Example Code](#get-ready-to-use-example-code)
+ [Next steps](#next-steps-setting-up)

## Step 1: Prerequisites
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### Sign up for an Amazon Web Services account
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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.

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
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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: create a user and get your Amazon credentials
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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 codes
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The following tutorials show how you can work with Amazon MQ brokers using the Amazon Web Services Management Console as well as how to connect to your Amazon MQ for ActiveMQ and Amazon MQ for RabbitMQ brokers programatically. To use the ActiveMQ Java example code, you must install the [Java Standard Edition Development Kit](https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html) and make some changes to the code.

You can also create and manage brokers programmatically using Amazon MQ [REST API](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/amazon-mq/latest/api-reference/) and Amazon SDKs.

## Next steps
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Now that you're prepared to work with Amazon MQ, get started by [creating a broker](getting-started-activemq.md). Depending on your broker engine type, you can then [connect a Java application to your Amazon MQ for ActiveMQ broker](amazon-mq-connecting-application.md) or use the RabbitMQ Java client library to [connect a JVM-based application to your Amazon MQ for RabbitMQ broker](rabbitmq-on-amazon-mq.md#rabbitmq-connect-jvm-application).