# Set up to use Amazon Private CA
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If you're not already an Amazon Web Services (Amazon) customer, you must sign up to be able to use Amazon Private CA. Your account automatically has access to all available services, but you are charged only for services that you use. 

**Topics**
+ [Sign up for an Amazon Web Services account](#sign-up-for-aws)
+ [Secure IAM users](#secure-an-admin)
+ [Install the Amazon Command Line Interface](#cli)

## 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)

## Install the Amazon Command Line Interface
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If you have not installed the Amazon CLI but want to use it, follow the directions at [Amazon Command Line Interface](http://www.amazonaws.cn/cli/). In this guide, we assume that you have [configured](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/userguide/cli-configure-quickstart.html) your endpoint, Region, and authentication details, and we omit these parameters from the sample commands.