Test-Driven Infrastructure with Chef

Sign up for Amazon Web Services

If you haven’t already got an account with Amazon Web Services, you’re going to need to set one up before we go any further. We only need to make use of the compute portion, EC2. Signing up is free, and as a customer you’re only charged for the time that the system is used, which at cents per hour is very affordable, especially for ephemeral testing. At the time of writing, Amazon is also offering a free year at the entry-level tier for several of their services.

To sign up, follow these steps:

1. Visit http://aws.amazon.com, and click on the large button that says “Sign up for a free Amazon Web Services account.”

1. At the Amazon Web Services Sign In page, fill in your email address and select “I am a new user.” You do have the option to use an existing Amazon account (if you have one for the shopping service, for instance), but we’re going to assume you follow the “new user” route.

2. Click the “Sign in using our secure server” button.

3. At the registration page, fill in the form that requests your name, verification of your email address, and a password, then click “Create account.”

4. You will now be taken to an account information screen requesting your address details. Fill in the details, check the box to agree with the customer agreement (having first read every single word, and checked for leather-winged daemons of the underworld).^[19]

5. At the time of writing you are required to fill in a captcha as a security check. Fill it in and click Continue.

6. You will shortly ...