Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions: Authenticating Azure Pipelines with GitHub Checks API

Azure Pipelines Authentication for GitHub Checks API

Question

You are developing an open source solution that uses a GitHub repository.

You create a new public project in Azure DevOps.

You plan to use Azure Pipelines for continuous build. The solution will use the GitHub Checks API.

Which authentication type should you use?

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

B

Write permission for the Checks API is only available to GitHub Apps.

Note: Authenticating as a GitHub App lets you do a couple of things:

-> You can retrieve high-level management information about your GitHub App.

-> You can request access tokens for an installation of the app.

https://docs.github.com/en/rest/guides/getting-started-with-the-checks-api

When integrating Azure DevOps with a GitHub repository, you need to use an authentication type that allows Azure Pipelines to access the repository and perform the required actions.

In this scenario, you plan to use Azure Pipelines for continuous build and the GitHub Checks API to verify the quality of the code changes.

Option A: OpenID is an open standard that allows users to authenticate with a single set of credentials across multiple systems. However, it is not directly relevant to this scenario.

Option B: GitHub App authentication is a method of providing access to a GitHub repository for a specific application. This method uses a set of credentials that are unique to the application, which are authorized by the repository owner. This is a valid option for this scenario since the solution uses a GitHub repository.

Option C: Personal Access Tokens (PAT) are another option for authenticating with GitHub repositories. A PAT is a secure way to authenticate with GitHub and allows access to specific repositories, but it requires the user to manually generate the token, which can be a cumbersome process.

Option D: Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is a standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between parties. However, it is not relevant to this scenario.

Based on the scenario described, the best authentication option to use is B. GitHub App authentication is the recommended approach for integrating Azure Pipelines with a GitHub repository, as it provides a secure and straightforward way to authenticate with the repository, and enables Azure Pipelines to perform the necessary actions to verify the code changes.