The AWS web console

The web-based console is the first thing you will see after creating your AWS account, and you will often refer to it when viewing and confirming your configuration.

The AWS web console

The console provides an overview of all the services available as well as associated billing and cost information. Each service has its own section, and the information displayed depends on the service being viewed. As new features and services are released, the console will change and improve. Don't be surprised if you log in and things have changed from one day to the next.

Keep in mind that the console always shows your resources by region. If you cannot see a resource that you created, make sure you have the right region selected.

Choose the region closest to your physical location for the fastest response times. Note that not all regions have the same services available. The larger, older regions generally have the most services available. Some of the newer or smaller regions (that might be closest to you) might not have all services enabled yet. While services are continually being released to regions, you may have to use another region if you simply must use a newer service.

The us-east-1 (a.k.a. North Virginia) region is special given its status as the first region. All services are available there, and new services are always released there.

As you get more advanced with your use of AWS, you will spend less time in the console and more time controlling your services programmatically via the AWS CLI tool and CloudFormation, which we will go into in more detail in the next few topics.