# Complete prerequisites to set up Amazon Data Firehose
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Before you use Amazon Data Firehose for the first time, complete the following tasks.

**Topics**
+ [Sign up for Amazon](#setting-up-sign-up-for-aws)
+ [(Optional) Download libraries and tools](#setting-up-downloads)

## Sign up for Amazon
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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)

## (Optional) Download libraries and tools
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The following libraries and tools will help you work with Amazon Data Firehose programmatically and from the command line: 
+ The [Firehose API Operations](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/firehose/latest/APIReference/API_Operations.html) is the basic set of operations that Amazon Data Firehose supports.
+ The Amazon SDKs for [Go](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-go/api/service/firehose/), [Java](https://www.amazonaws.cn/sdk-for-java/), [.NET](https://www.amazonaws.cn/sdk-for-net/), [Node.js](https://aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-javascript/), [Python](https://www.amazonaws.cn/developers/getting-started/python/), and [Ruby](https://www.amazonaws.cn/developers/getting-started/ruby/) include Amazon Data Firehose support and samples.

  If your version of the Amazon SDK for Java does not include samples for Amazon Data Firehose, you can also download the latest Amazon SDK from [GitHub](https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-java/tree/master/src/samples).
+ The [Amazon Command Line Interface](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/userguide/) supports Amazon Data Firehose. The Amazon CLI enables you to control multiple Amazon services from the command line and automate them through scripts.