# `[aws]` section
<a name="aws"></a>

**(Optional)** Used to select the AWS Region.

Cluster creation uses this priority order to select the AWS Region for a new cluster:

1. `-r` or `--region` parameter to [`pcluster create`](pluster.create.md).

1. `AWS_DEFAULT_REGION` environment variable.

1. `aws_region_name` setting in `[aws]` section of AWS ParallelCluster config file (default location is `~/.parallelcluster/config`.) This is the location updated by the [`pcluster configure`](pcluster.configure.md) command.

1. `region` setting in `[default]` section of AWS CLI config file (`~/.aws/config`.)

**Note**  
Before AWS ParallelCluster version 2.10.0, these settings were required and applied to all clusters.

To store credentials, you can use the environment, IAM roles for Amazon EC2, or the [AWS CLI](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-getting-started.html), rather than saving credentials into the AWS ParallelCluster config file.

```
[aws]
aws_region_name = Region
```

[Update policy: This setting is not analyzed during an update.](using-pcluster-update.md#update-policy-setting-ignored)