AZ-400 Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions Exam

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Practice Test

Intermediate
Exam

Recommend appropriate access levels, including stakeholder access inAzure DevOps and outside collaborator access in GitHub

Assign Azure DevOps and GitHub Permissions

Assigning Permissions

Assigning permissions in Azure DevOps and GitHub is a critical aspect of managing access and maintaining security compliance. Properly assigning permissions is necessary to enforce the least-privilege principle, which means granting users only the access they need for their specific tasks.

Azure DevOps Access Levels

Azure DevOps offers multiple levels of access:

  • Stakeholder: For users who only need basic project tracking features.
  • Basic: Provides access to most project features, except where specific licenses are required.
  • Visual Studio Subscriber: Grants full access based on the Visual Studio subscription benefits.

To manage permissions effectively, it's important to evaluate each user's role and assign them the minimal privileges required. This approach reduces the risk of unnecessary access and potential security breaches.

GitHub Outside Collaborator Access

GitHub provides various outside collaborator roles:

  • Read: Allows viewing repository content.
  • Write: Enables making changes to the codebase.
  • Admin: Grants full control over the repository settings.

When working with external contributors:

  • Assign Read access for roles that require information or code review.
  • Grant Write access for contributors involved in active development.
  • Use Admin privileges sparingly, assigning them only when extensive configuration changes are needed.

Service Principals and Identity Credentials

For automated tasks in Azure, creating service principals and configuring federated identity credentials is important:

  • Create a service principal for each application environment (Dev, Test, Prod) using commands like az ad sp create.
  • Configure a federated identity credential for each service principal. This credential links GitHub Actions with Azure, ensuring secure authentication.

Role Assignments

Assign roles to deployment identities in Azure:

  • For Reader roles on projects, use commands like az role assignment create --role Reader.
  • For deployment-specific roles, assign roles such as "Deployment Environments User" for each environment type.

GitHub Environment Configuration

Set up GitHub environments for different stages:

  • Create environments named Dev, Test, and Prod.
  • Add secrets like AZURE_CLIENT_ID to each environment to securely store credentials.

By following these steps, organizations can securely manage access levels in both Azure DevOps and GitHub. Ensuring that users and collaborators have the appropriate permissions needed to perform their roles while maintaining security and compliance standards is crucial.

Conclusion

In summary, understanding and properly assigning permissions within Azure DevOps and GitHub are essential for managing access and maintaining security compliance. Evaluating user roles and aligning them with minimal privileges reduces risks associated with unnecessary access. Both platforms offer robust features to ensure only the required permissions are granted, from stakeholder access in Azure DevOps to outside collaborator roles in GitHub. By effectively managing these permissions and configurations, organizations can ensure a secure and well-organized workflow.