Getting started with Amazon Organizations - Amazon Organizations
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).

Getting started with Amazon Organizations

The following topics provide information to help you start using Amazon Organizations. You can also use the following tutorials to begin performing tasks using Amazon Organizations.

Tutorial: Creating and configuring an organization

Get up and running with step-by-step instructions to create your organization, invite your first member accounts, create an OU hierarchy that contains your accounts, and apply some service control policies (SCPs).

Tutorial: Monitor important changes to your organization with Amazon EventBridge

Monitor key changes in your organization by configuring Amazon EventBridge to trigger an alarm in the form of an email, SMS text message, or log entry when actions that you designate occur in your organization. For example, many organizations want to know when a new account is created or when an account attempts to leave the organization.

Signing up for Amazon

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:

Accessing Amazon Organizations

You can work with Amazon Organizations in any of the following ways:

Amazon Web Services Management Console

The Amazon Organizations console is a browser-based interface that you can use to manage your organization and your Amazon resources. You can perform any task in your organization by using the console.

Amazon Command Line Tools

With the Amazon command line tools, you can issue commands at your system's command line to perform Amazon Organizations and Amazon tasks. Working with the command line can be faster and more convenient than using the console. The command line tools also are useful if you want to build scripts that perform Amazon tasks.

Amazon provides two sets of command line tools:

  • Amazon Command Line Interface

    The Amazon Command Line Interface (Amazon CLI) is a unified tool to manage your Amazon Web Services services. With just one tool to download and configure, you can control multiple Amazon Web Services services from the command line and automate them through scripts.

    For information about installing and using the Amazon CLI, see the Amazon Command Line Interface User Guide.

  • Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell

    The Tools for Windows PowerShell let developers and administrators manage their Amazon Web Services services and resources in the PowerShell scripting environment. You can manage your Amazon resources with the same PowerShell tools you use to manage your Windows, Linux, and MacOS environments.

    For information about installing and using the Tools for Windows PowerShell, see the Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell User Guide.

Amazon SDKs

The Amazon SDKs consist of libraries and sample code for various programming languages and platforms (for example, Java, Python, Ruby, .NET, iOS, and Android). The SDKs take care of tasks such as cryptographically signing requests, managing errors, and retrying requests automatically. For more information about the Amazon SDKs, including how to download and install them, see Tools for Amazon Web Services.

Amazon Organizations HTTPS Query API

The Amazon Organizations HTTPS Query API gives you programmatic access to Amazon Organizations and Amazon. The HTTPS Query API lets you issue HTTPS requests directly to the service. When you use the HTTPS API, you must include code to digitally sign requests using your credentials. For more information, see Calling the API by Making HTTP Query Requests and the Amazon Organizations API Reference.