The document provides tips for getting started on AWS in your first hour, including setting up an account, monitoring spending, basic security setup, launching workload on EC2, and getting help. It outlines steps for signing up for an account, enabling billing alerts and MFA, understanding account types and permissions, launching an EC2 instance, and resources for getting additional help and training. The document also provides recommendations for activities in the second hour such as monitoring costs programmatically, automating infrastructure, and getting certified in AWS.

1. © 2014 Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates. All rights reserved. May not be copied, modified, or distributed in whole or in part without the express consent of Amazon.com, Inc.
Jumpstart Your First Hour on AWS
Craig S. Dickson
Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services

2. Overview
• Assumes (very) little AWS knowledge
• Simple tasks that can save time and avoid embarrassment later
• Will focus on what and not so much on how
• Five main areas
– Set up an account
– Monitor your spending
– Basic security setup
– Launch a workload
– Get help

3. Setting Up An Account

4. Sign Up For An Account
• Very simple, entire process takes less than 5
minutes
– You will need a Credit Card
– You will need access to a phone for automated ID verification
• Pick a good email address
– use a group email alias
– don’t use your amazon.com credentials

5. Turn On Premium Support
Developer Business Enterprise
Access via Email Phone, Chat, Email Phone, Chat, Email
Named Contacts 1 5 Unlimited
Response Time < 12 hours < 1 hour < 15 minutes
Trusted Advisor No Yes Yes
Infrastructure Event
Management
Pay per event Included
Technical Account
Manager
Included

6. Add MFA To Your Root Account

7. Monitor Your Spending

8. Turn On Billing Alerts
Avoid any nasty surprises at the end of your first month

9. Get Familiar with the Billing Console

10. Basic Security Setup

11. MFA for your Root Account
• You did turn that on right?
• Double-check in the IAM Console

12. Understand the Different Account Types
• Root Account
– treat it like a root or Administrator account (i.e. don’t use it!)
– put the credentials and MFA token somewhere safe
• IAM Accounts
– familiar users and groups model
– apply policies to users or groups to grant privileges in your AWS
environment

13. Create an IAM Group for Admins
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": "*",
"Resource": "*"
}
]
}

14. Create IAM User Accounts for Admins

15. Set Your IAM User Sign-In URL

16. Launch an EC2 Workload

17. Understand Regions, AZs and Edges
US-WEST (Oregon) EU-WEST (Ireland)
ASIA PAC (Tokyo)
ASIA PAC
(Singapore)
US-WEST (N. California)
SOUTH AMERICA (Sao Paulo)
US-EAST (Virginia)
GOV CLOUD
ASIA PAC
(Sydney)
CHINA

18. Setup a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

19. Understand Supported Platforms

20. VPCs can be simple …

21. … but VPCs can also be sophisticated

22. Learn the EC2 Basics
• Explore the different instance types
– why not try them all?
• Exploit the pay-by-the-hour model
• There is a Free Tier – use it!
• Use Tags

23. No really, Use Tags!
• Can be used in your IAM Policies
• Can be used for cost allocation
• Can be used from the SDKs and the CLI
• Can be used from 3rd party tools like Chef

24. Launch an EC2 Instance
• From the console
– baseline AMI from AWS
– fully configured AMI from the AWS Marketplace
• From CloudFormation
• From the Command Line Interface (CLI)

25. Upload Content to S3

26. Setup S3 as a Web Server

27. Get Help

28. Join the Discussion Forums
All levels of Support include Forum access

29. Do Some Training
• Official AWS Instructor-Led classes
• Self-Paced Labs
• Take a Test Drive

30. Read The Official AWS Blogs
Chinese
Portuguese
German
Japanese
Application
Management
PHP
.NET
Ruby
Mobile
Java
Security

31. Listen To The Podcast
• Short, sharp and topical
• Amusing accents

32. Reach out to your AWS Account Team
• You have one whether you know it or not
• We don’t bite
• We love talking to our customers
• We bring our own whiteboard markers
• If we can’t answer your question about AWS, we
will find someone who can

33. 59:30 … 30 seconds to spare!

34. What about your 2nd hour?

35. Monitor Your Costs – Ninja Style
• Programmatic Billing Access
– you did start Tagging everything right?
• Gamify your infrastructure spend
• Plug in a 3rd party tool
– Splunk
– Netflix Ice
– Sumo Logic
– Cloudability
– many others

36. Dial Up Your Security – Ninja Style
• Start using Resource-level Permissions
• Setup Identity Federation
• Turn on CloudTrail
• Use EC2 Roles to keep your AWS
credentials out of GitHub

37. Start Thinking About Automation
• Get to know CloudFormation like your life depends on it
• Learn the new unified CLI
– learn the S3 commands first
• Start leveraging User Data
• Add in Chef, Puppet, Ansible etc. as necessary

38. Attend Events
• Summits in 2014
– Sydney, Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne,
Canberra & Perth
• Lunch & Learns
• Local User Groups
– Adelaide (yay!), Brisbane, Canberra,
Melbourne, Perth & Sydney
– Auckland
how many can you see???

39. Get Certified

40. Resources
http://bit.ly/P4t0Fm
Craig S. Dickson
craigd@amazon.com
@craigsdickson