# Basic AWS Setup 

Before you can deploy anything on AWS, you must do a few things.


## Get an AWS Account

If you don't already have an AWS account, you can [sign up for one for free at aws.amazon.com](https://aws.amazon.com/).


## Install the AWS Command-Line Interface

To install the AWS Command-Line Interface (CLI), just do:
```text
pip install awscli
```


## Create an AWS Access Key

The next thing you'll need is an AWS access key. If you don't have one, you can create one using the [instructions in the AWS documentation](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSSimpleQueueService/latest/SQSGettingStartedGuide/AWSCredentials.html). You should get an access key ID (e.g. AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE) and a secret access key (e.g. wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY).

You should also pick a default AWS region name (e.g. `eu-central-1`). That's where your cluster will run. The AWS documentation has [a list of them](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/rande.html#ec2_region).

Once you've got your AWS access key, and you've picked a default AWS region name, go to a terminal session and enter:
```text
aws configure
```

and answer the four questions. For example:
```text
AWS Access Key ID [None]: AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY
Default region name [None]: eu-central-1
Default output format [None]: [Press Enter]
```

This writes two files: `~/.aws/credentials` and `~/.aws/config`. AWS tools and packages look for those files.