# Set up to use Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling
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Before you start using Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, complete the following tasks.

**Topics**
+ [Prepare to use the Amazon CLI](#set-up-cli)

## Prepare to use the Amazon CLI
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You can use the Amazon command line tools to issue commands at your system's command line to perform Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling and other Amazon tasks. 

To use the Amazon Command Line Interface (Amazon CLI), download, install, and configure version 1 or 2 of the Amazon CLI. The same Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling functionality is available in version 1 and 2. To install the Amazon CLI version 1, see [Installing, updating, and uninstalling the Amazon CLI](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/v1/userguide/cli-chap-install.html) in the *Amazon CLI Version 1 User Guide*. To install the Amazon CLI version 2, see [Installing or updating the latest version of the Amazon CLI](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-install.html) in the *Amazon CLI Version 2 User Guide*. 

Amazon CloudShell lets you skip installing the Amazon CLI in your development environment, and use it in the Amazon Web Services Management Console instead. In addition to avoiding installation, you also don't need to configure credentials, and you don't need to specify a region. Your Amazon Web Services Management Console session provides this context to the Amazon CLI. You can use Amazon CloudShell in supported Amazon Web Services Regions. For more information, see [Create Auto Scaling groups from the command line using Amazon CloudShell](create-auto-scaling-groups-with-cloudshell.md).

For more information, see [autoscaling](https://awscli.amazonaws.com/v2/documentation/api/latest/reference/autoscaling/) in the *Amazon CLI Command Reference*.