GitHub with Bicep

Follow these instructions to bootstrap GitHub ready to deploy your platform landing zone with Bicep.

Create a new folder on your local drive called accelerator.
Inside the accelerator create two folders called config and output. You’ll store your input file inside config and the output folder will be the place that the accelerator stores files while it works.

Inside the config folder create a new file called inputs.yaml. You can use json if you prefer, but our examples here are yaml.

# Windows
New-Item -ItemType "file" c:\accelerator\config\inputs.yaml -Force
New-Item -ItemType "directory" c:\accelerator\output

# Linux/Mac
New-Item -ItemType "file" /accelerator/config/inputs.yaml -Force
New-Item -ItemType "directory" /accelerator/output

📂accelerator
┣ 📂config
┃ ┗ 📜inputs.yaml
┗ 📂output

Open your inputs.yaml file in Visual Studio Code (or your preferred editor) and copy the content from inputs-github.yaml into that file.

Check through the file and update each input as required. It is mandatory to update items with placeholders surrounded by angle brackets <>:

The following inputs can also be supplied via environment variables. This may be useful for sensitive values you don’t wish to persist to a file. The Env Var Prefix denotes the prefix the environment variable should have. The environment variable is formatting is <PREFIX>_<variable_name>, e.g. $env:ALZ_iac_type = "terraform" or $env:TF_VAR_github_personal_access_token = "*****...".

Input	Env Var Prefix	Placeholder	Description
`iac_type`	`ALZ`	`bicep`	This is the choice of `bicep` or `terraform`. Keep this as `bicep` for this example.
`bootstrap_module_name`	`ALZ`	`alz_github`	This is the choice of Version Control System. Keep this as `alz_github` for this example.
`starter_module_name`	`ALZ`	`complete`	This is the choice of [Starter Modules][wiki_starter_modules], which is the baseline configuration you want for your Azure landing zone. Keep this as `complete` for this example.
`bootstrap_location`	`TF_VAR`	`<region>`	Replace `<region>` with the Azure region where you would like to deploy the bootstrap resources in Azure. This field expects the `name` of the region, such as `uksouth`. You can find a full list of names by running `az account list-locations -o table`.
`starter_locations`	`TF_VAR`	`[<region-1>,<region-2>]`	Replace `<region-1>` and `<region-2>` with the Azure regions where you would like to deploy the starter module resources in Azure. This field expects the `name` of the regions in and array, such as `["uksouth", "ukwest"]`. You can find a full list of names by running `az account list-locations -o table`.
`root_parent_management_group_id`	`TF_VAR`	`""`	This is the id of the management group that will be the parent of the management group structure created by the accelerator. If you are using the `Tenant Root Group` management group, you leave this as an empty string `""` or supply the tenant id.
`subscription_id_management`	`TF_VAR`	`<management-subscription-id>`	Replace `<management-subscription-id>` with the id of the management subscription you created in the previous phase.
`subscription_id_identity`	`TF_VAR`	`<identity-subscription-id>`	Replace `<identity-subscription-id>` with the id of the identity subscription you created in the previous phase.
`subscription_id_connectivity`	`TF_VAR`	`<connectivity-subscription-id>`	Replace `<connectivity-subscription-id>` with the id of the connectivity subscription you created in the previous phase.
`github_personal_access_token`	`TF_VAR`	`<token-1>`	Replace `<token-1>` with the `token-1` GitHub PAT you generated in a previous step.
`github_runners_personal_access_token`	`TF_VAR`	`<token-2>`	Replace `<token-2>` with the `token-2` GitHub PAT you generated in the previous step specifically for the self-hosted runners. This only applies if you have `use_self_hosted_agents` set to `true`. You can set this to an empty string `""` if you are not using self-hosted runners.
`github_organization_name`	`TF_VAR`	`<github-organization>`	Replace `<github-organization>` with the name of your GitHub organization. This is the section of the url after `github.com`. E.g. enter `my-org` for `https://github.com/my-org`.
`use_separate_repository_for_templates`	`TF_VAR`	`true`	Determine whether to create a separate repository to store workflow templates as an extra layer of security. Set to `false` if you don’t wish to secure your workflow templates by using a separate repository. This will default to `true`.
`bootstrap_subscription_id`	`TF_VAR`	`""`	Enter the id of the subscription in which you would like to deploy the bootstrap resources in Azure. If left blank, the subscription you are connected to via `az login` will be used. In most cases this is the management subscription, but you can specify a separate subscription if you prefer.
`service_name`	`TF_VAR`	`alz`	This is used to build up the names of your Azure and GitHub resources, for example `rg-<service_name>-mgmt-uksouth-001`. We recommend using `alz` for this.
`environment_name`	`TF_VAR`	`mgmt`	This is used to build up the names of your Azure and GitHub resources, for example `rg-alz-<environment_name>-uksouth-001`. We recommend using `mgmt` for this.
`postfix_number`	`TF_VAR`	`1`	This is used to build up the names of your Azure and GitHub resources, for example `rg-alz-mgmt-uksouth-<postfix_number>`. We recommend using `1` for this.
`use_self_hosted_agents`	`TF_VAR`	`true`	This controls if you want to deploy self-hosted agents. This will default to `true`.
`use_private_networking`	`TF_VAR`	`true`	This controls whether private networking is deployed for your self-hosted agents and storage account. This only applies if you have `use_self_hosted_agents` set to `true`. This defaults to `true`.
`allow_storage_access_from_my_ip`	`TF_VAR`	`false`	This is not relevant to Bicep and we’ll remove the need to specify it later, leave it set to `false`.
`apply_approvers`	`TF_VAR`	`<email-address>`	This is a list of service principal names (SPN) of people you wish to be in the group that approves apply of the Azure landing zone module. This is an array of strings like `["abc@xyz.com", "def@xyz.com", "ghi@xyz.com"]`. You may need to check what the SPN is prior to filling this out as it can vary based on identity provider. Use empty array `[]` to disable approvals. Note if supplying via the user interface, use a comma separated string like `abc@xyz.com,def@xyz.com,ghi@xyz.com`.
`create_branch_policies`	`TF_VAR`	`true`	This controls whether to create branch policies for the repository. This defaults to `true`.

Now head over to your chosen starter module documentation to get the specific inputs for that module. Come back here when you are done.
- Bicep Complete Starter Module

In your PowerShell Core (pwsh) terminal run the module:

# Windows (adjust the paths to match your setup)
Deploy-Accelerator -inputs "c:\accelerator\config\inputs.yaml" -output "c:\accelerator\output"

# Linux/Mac (adjust the paths to match your setup)
Deploy-Accelerator -inputs "/accelerator/config/inputs.yaml" -output "/accelerator/output"

You will see a Terraform init and apply happen.
There will be a pause after the plan phase to allow you to validate what is going to be deployed.
If you are happy with the plan, then type yes and hit enter.
The Terraform will apply and your environment will be bootstrapped.

Next Steps

Now head to Phase 3.