Getting started with AWS Organizations
The following topics provide information to help you start using AWS Organizations. You can also use the following tutorials to begin performing tasks using AWS Organizations.
- Tutorial: Creating and configuring an organization
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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
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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.
Topics
Signing up for AWS
Sign up for an AWS account
If you do not have an AWS account, complete the following steps to create one.
To sign up for an AWS account
Open https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup
. Follow the online instructions.
Part of the sign-up procedure involves receiving a phone call and entering a verification code on the phone keypad.
When you sign up for an AWS account, an AWS account root user is created. The root user has access to all AWS services and resources in the account. As a security best practice, assign administrative access to a user, and use only the root user to perform tasks that require root user access.
AWS 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 https://aws.amazon.com/
Create a user with administrative access
After you sign up for an AWS account, secure your AWS account root user, enable AWS IAM Identity Center, and create an administrative user so that you don't use the root user for everyday tasks.
Secure your AWS account root user
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Sign in to the AWS Management Console
as the account owner by choosing Root user and entering your AWS account email address. On the next page, enter your password. For help signing in by using root user, see Signing in as the root user in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.
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Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your root user.
For instructions, see Enable a virtual MFA device for your AWS account root user (console) in the IAM User Guide.
Create a user with administrative access
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Enable IAM Identity Center.
For instructions, see Enabling AWS IAM Identity Center in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.
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In IAM Identity Center, grant administrative access to a user.
For a tutorial about using the IAM Identity Center directory as your identity source, see Configure user access with the default IAM Identity Center directory in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.
Sign in as the user with administrative access
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To sign in with your IAM Identity Center user, use the sign-in URL that was sent to your email address when you created the IAM Identity Center user.
For help signing in using an IAM Identity Center user, see Signing in to the AWS access portal in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.
Assign access to additional users
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In IAM Identity Center, create a permission set that follows the best practice of applying least-privilege permissions.
For instructions, see Create a permission set in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.
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Assign users to a group, and then assign single sign-on access to the group.
For instructions, see Add groups in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.
Accessing AWS Organizations
You can work with AWS Organizations in any of the following ways:
- AWS Management Console
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The AWS Organizations console
is a browser-based interface that you can use to manage your organization and your AWS resources. You can perform any task in your organization by using the console. - AWS Command Line Tools
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With the AWS command line tools, you can issue commands at your system's command line to perform AWS Organizations and AWS 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 AWS tasks.
AWS provides two sets of command line tools:
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The AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) is a unified tool to manage your AWS services. With just one tool to download and configure, you can control multiple AWS services from the command line and automate them through scripts.
For information about installing and using the AWS CLI, see the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.
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AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell
The Tools for Windows PowerShell let developers and administrators manage their AWS services and resources in the PowerShell scripting environment. You can manage your AWS 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 AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell User Guide.
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- AWS SDKs
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The AWS 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 AWS SDKs, including how to download and install them, see Tools for Amazon Web Services
. - AWS Organizations HTTPS Query API
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The AWS Organizations HTTPS Query API gives you programmatic access to AWS Organizations and AWS. 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 AWS Organizations API Reference.
