# Amazon SageMaker AI domain overview
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Amazon SageMaker AI uses domains to organize user profiles, applications, and their associated resources. An Amazon SageMaker AI domain consists of the following:
+ An associated Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) volume
+ A list of authorized users
+ A variety of security, application, policy, and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) configurations

The following diagram provides an overview of private apps and shared spaces within each domain.

 ![Overview of a domain.](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/sagemaker/latest/dg/images/domains/private-apps-shared-spaces.png) 

To have access to most Amazon SageMaker AI environments and resources, you must complete the Amazon SageMaker AI domain onboarding process using the SageMaker AI console or the AWS CLI. For a guide describing how to get started using SageMaker AI based on how you want to access SageMaker AI, and if necessary how to set up a domain, see [Guide to getting set up with Amazon SageMaker AI](gs.md).

**Topics**
+ [Amazon SageMaker AI domain entities and statuses](sm-domain.md)
+ [Choose an Amazon VPC](onboard-vpc.md)