GitHub Actions and Azure - Getting started with GitHub Actions and Azure Login
New to GitHub Actions? This episode is your starting point for automating Azure deployments with GitHub’s built-in CI/CD platform.
What You’ll Learn
- The difference between Git and GitHub, and how GitHub Actions fits into your development workflow alongside alternatives like Azure DevOps, GitLab, and Bitbucket
- GitHub Actions workflow YAML structure:
ontriggers,jobs,steps,runs-on - How GitHub-hosted runners (Ubuntu, Windows, macOS) work and when to use self-hosted alternatives
- Using the Azure Login action to authenticate against Azure from a workflow
- Creating an Azure Service Principal with the
az ad sp create-for-rbaccommand and storing credentials as GitHub Secrets - Running Azure CLI commands as workflow steps after authentication
- Pinning GitHub Actions to specific versions (e.g.,
azure/login@v1) for reproducible, auditable pipelines
Key Concept: Actions as Repositories
GitHub Actions are themselves open-source repositories. When you reference azure/login@v1, you’re pinning to a specific release tag of the azure/login GitHub repository. This makes the GitHub Actions ecosystem composable, auditable, and extensible—anyone can submit a pull request to add new capabilities.
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