Setup

Configuring your GitHub Enterprise Cloud environment is a key step in preparing for migration from Azure DevOps. This guide helps you set up your repositories, teams, and integrations so your migration is efficient and reliable.

In this guide

Progress tracker

Use this checklist to help guide your setup:

• Enterprise settings configured
• Identity provider integration completed
• Azure DevOps integration prepared
• Organizations and teams created
• Security controls implemented
• Compliance settings established
• Repository templates created
• Integrations and packages configured
• Documentation completed

Learning resources

Before configuring your target environment, review these resources:

• GitHub documentation
  • Enterprise configuration guide
  • Identity and access management
  • Organization security features
• Essentials of administration and governance with GitHub Enterprise Cloud
• Microsoft Learn
  • GitHub administration and product features
  • GitHub foundations - part 1
  • GitHub foundations - part 2
• Well-Architected Framework
  • Getting started with GitHub Well-Architected
  • Governance checklist
  • Security pillar

Enterprise configuration

Initial setup

Setting up proper authentication and access controls is essential for a successful migration.

• Configure enterprise settings

  Setting	Purpose
  Policies	Ensure consistency across organizations
  Audit logging	Enable centralized tracking
  Security controls	Establish baseline protection

• Review and configure key policies:

  • Repository creation
  • Organization permissions
  • Security requirements
  • Access controls

Identity and access management

Identity configuration is critical for both GitHub access and Azure DevOps integration. Before proceeding, ensure you understand your identity provider and user management strategy.

• Select your authentication strategy:
  • Individual accounts with SAML SSO
    • Allows existing GitHub.com accounts
    • Flexible user management
  • Enterprise managed users
    • Complete identity lifecycle management
    • Stricter access controls
    • Users managed entirely through IdP

Provider setup

• Configure identity provider integration:

  • Microsoft Entra ID
  • SCIM provisioning for automated user management
  • Team synchronization to map IdP groups to GitHub teams

• Implement security controls:

  • Two-factor authentication requirements
  • Session management policies
  • Access review schedules

• Establish emergency access:

  • Recovery codes and emergency access accounts
  • Identity provider outage protocols

• Set up monitoring:

  • Authentication events
  • User provisioning
  • Identity integration health
  • API usage and rate limits

Azure DevOps integration

Pre-migration integration setup

• Review your assessment findings for Azure DevOps service dependencies
• Plan integration configuration based on your project charter decisions
• Test authentication methods between Azure DevOps and GitHub Enterprise Cloud
• Validate service connections and permissions before migration begins

Azure Boards integration

If planning to maintain Azure Boards integration:

• Configure Azure Boards app for GitHub
• Prepare Azure Boards connection templates
• Configure work item linking patterns
• Define notification rules and webhook configurations
• Test work item references and commit linking

Azure Pipelines integration

If planning to keep Azure Pipelines temporarily or permanently:

• Choose your GitHub authentication method:
  • GitHub App (recommended) - Uses Azure Pipelines identity, supports GitHub Checks
  • OAuth - Uses your personal GitHub identity
  • Personal Access Token (PAT) - Uses your personal GitHub identity with controlled permissions
• Set up GitHub repository connections in Azure DevOps
• Configure build trigger policies for GitHub repositories
• Test pipeline triggers and authentication

Organization structure

Organization setup

• Create organizations based on your planned structure:

  • Consider business unit alignment
  • Plan for scaling with future growth
  • Consider regulatory requirements for data segregation

• Configure organization settings:

  • Base permissions for repositories
  • Repository creation permissions
  • GitHub Project permissions
  • Team creation permissions
  • Default branch naming conventions

Team configuration

• Create team structure aligned with your organization needs:

  • Independent teams for department or business units
  • Separate teams for project groups
  • Team maintainers with clearly defined roles
  • Custom team roles with appropriate permissions
  • Clear naming conventions for team organization

• Configure team membership management based on your authentication strategy:

  • For organizations with SAML SSO:
    • Set up team synchronization to map IdP groups to GitHub teams
    • Define synchronization schedules and conflict resolution policies
  • For Enterprise Managed Users:
    • Use identity provider groups to manage team memberships
    • Configure group assignment in your IdP
  • Test team membership automation
  • Document team management processes

Compliance settings

Audit configuration

• Set up audit log streaming:

  • Configure stream destination (SIEM, Cloud storage)
  • Define event filtering
  • Establish monitoring alerts
  • Test log delivery

• Configure audit log retention:

  • Set retention period (based on compliance requirements)
  • Implement backup policies
  • Define access controls for logs
  • Create compliance reporting procedures

• Set up compliance reporting:

  • Define report schedules
  • Identify compliance stakeholders
  • Create report templates
  • Establish review procedures

Policy configuration

• Configure repository policies:

  • Visibility settings (private, internal, public)
  • Fork policies
  • Issue creation and management
  • Repository deletion/transfer restrictions
  • Prevent repository visibility changes
  • Enforce default branch naming conventions

• Configure custom repository properties to:

  • Categorize repositories (production/development)
  • Track regulatory compliance requirements
  • Mark business criticality levels
  • Support dynamic security enforcement

• Implement enterprise-wide and/or organization-level repository rulesets for governance at scale:

  • Define common ruleset patterns for different repository types
  • Configure tag protection rules
  • Set up push protection rules
  • Require specific workflows for critical changes
  • Enforce commit signing requirements
  • Apply rulesets with custom targeting using repository properties

• Configure Personal Access Token (PAT) policies to:

  • Set maximum token expiration periods
  • Enable fine-grained personal access tokens
  • Configure token access restrictions for organizations

Repository templates

• Consider creating repository templates for common project types:

  • Standard application templates
  • Microservice templates
  • Library and package templates
  • Documentation repositories

• Set up standard templates:

  • README templates with clear documentation standards
  • CONTRIBUTING guidelines describing workflow processes
  • Issue templates for bug reports, feature requests
  • Pull request templates with review checklists
  • Security policy files
  • Standard license files
  • Default branch configuration

Integration and package management

GitHub apps and integrations

• Configure external integrations, as needed:
  • Monitoring solutions
  • Deployment targets
  • Artifact repositories

Actions and workflow configuration

• Set up Actions environments:

  • Development, staging, production
  • Environment protection rules
  • Required reviewers
  • Deployment gates

• Consider creating Actions reusable workflows:

  • CI build workflows
  • Test automation workflows
  • Release automation workflows
  • Security scanning workflows (requires GitHub Code Security for private repositories)
  • Dependency management workflows

Package management

• Set up GitHub Packages:
  • Configure package repositories
  • Set up access controls
  • Define retention policies
  • Configure CI/CD integration

Knowledge transfer and documentation

• Document enterprise configuration:

  • Authentication and identity management
  • Security configurations
  • Policy enforcement
  • Audit and compliance settings

• Create migration guides:

  • Developer onboarding
  • Workflow translation guides
  • Tool migration procedures
  • Integration configuration

• Establish support resources:

  • Internal knowledge base
  • Training materials
  • Troubleshooting guides
  • Escalation procedures

Next steps

After completing your target environment setup:

1. Review the GitHub Well-Architected Framework Security Pillar
2. Proceed to Migration Testing