# Getting started with Amazon DataSync
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Before you get started with Amazon DataSync, you need to sign up for an Amazon Web Services account if you don't have one. We also recommend learning where DataSync can be used and how much it might cost to transfer your data.

## 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)

## Required IAM permissions for using DataSync
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DataSync can transfer your data to or from an Amazon S3 bucket, Amazon EFS file system, or Amazon FSx file system. To get your data where you want it to go, you need the right IAM permissions granted to your identity. For example, the IAM role that you use with DataSync needs permission to use the Amazon S3 operations required to transfer data to an S3 bucket.

You can grant these permissions with IAM policies provided by Amazon or by creating your own policies.

**Contents**
+ [Amazon managed policies](#permissions-requirements-managed)
+ [Customer managed policies](#permissions-requirements-customer-managed)

### Amazon managed policies
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Amazon provides the following managed policies for common DataSync use cases:
+ `AWSDataSyncReadOnlyAccess` – Provides read-only access to DataSync.
+ `AWSDataSyncFullAccess` – Provides full access to DataSync and minimal access to its dependencies.

For more information, see [Amazon managed policies for Amazon DataSync](security-iam-awsmanpol.md).

### Customer managed policies
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You can create custom IAM policies to use with DataSync. For more information, see [IAM customer managed policies for Amazon DataSync](using-identity-based-policies.md).

## Where can I use DataSync?
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For a list of Amazon Web Services Regions and endpoints that DataSync supports, see [Amazon DataSync endpoints and quotas](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/general/latest/gr/datasync.html) in the *Amazon Web Services General Reference*.

## How can I use DataSync?
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There are several ways to use DataSync:
+ [DataSync console](https://console.amazonaws.cn/datasync/home), which is part of the Amazon Web Services Management Console.
+ [DataSync API](API_Reference.md) or the [Amazon CLI](https://awscli.amazonaws.com/v2/documentation/api/latest/reference/datasync/index.html#cli-aws-datasync) to programmatically configure and manage DataSync.
+ [Amazon CloudFormation](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/AWS_DataSync.html) or [Terraform](https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/aws/latest/docs/resources/datasync_agent) to provision your DataSync resources.
+ [Amazon SDKs](https://www.amazonaws.cn/developer/) to build applications that use DataSync.

## How much will DataSync cost?
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To create a custom estimate using the amount of data that you plan to transfer, see [DataSync pricing](https://www.amazonaws.cn/datasync/pricing). 

## Open-source components used by DataSync
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To view the open-source components used by DataSync, download the following link:
+ [datasync-open-source-components.zip](samples/datasync-open-source-components.zip)