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Quickstart: Deploy Bicep files by using GitHub Actions

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GitHub Actions is a suite of features in GitHub to automate your software development workflows. In this quickstart, you use the GitHub Actions for Azure Resource Manager deployment to automate deploying a Bicep file to Azure.

It provides a short introduction to GitHub actions and Bicep files. If you want more detailed steps on setting up the GitHub actions and project, see Deploy Azure resources by using Bicep and GitHub Actions.

Prerequisites

Create resource group

Create a resource group. Later in this quickstart, you deploy your Bicep file to this resource group.

Azure CLI 
az group create -n exampleRG -l westus

Generate deployment credentials

To use Azure Login action with OIDC, you need to configure a federated identity credential on a Microsoft Entra application or a user-assigned managed identity.

Option 1: Microsoft Entra application

Option 2: User-assigned managed identity

Configure the GitHub secrets

You need to provide your application's Client ID, Directory (tenant) ID, and Subscription ID to the login action. These values can either be provided directly in the workflow or can be stored in GitHub secrets and referenced in your workflow. Saving the values as GitHub secrets is the more secure option.

  1. In GitHub, go to your repository.

  2. Select Security > Secrets and variables > Actions.

    Screenshot of adding a secret

  3. Select New repository secret.

    Note

    To enhance workflow security in public repositories, use environment secrets instead of repository secrets. If the environment requires approval, a job cannot access environment secrets until one of the required reviewers approves it.

  4. Create secrets for AZURE_CLIENT_ID, AZURE_TENANT_ID, and AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID. Copy these values from your Microsoft Entra application or user-assigned managed identity for your GitHub secrets:

    GitHub secret Microsoft Entra application or user-assigned managed identity
    AZURE_CLIENT_ID Client ID
    AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID Subscription ID
    AZURE_TENANT_ID Directory (tenant) ID

    Note

    For security reasons, we recommend using GitHub Secrets rather than passing values directly to the workflow.

Add a Bicep file

Add a Bicep file to your GitHub repository. The following Bicep file creates a storage account:

Bicep 
@minLength(3)
@maxLength(11)
param storagePrefix string

@allowed([
  'Standard_LRS'
  'Standard_GRS'
  'Standard_RAGRS'
  'Standard_ZRS'
  'Premium_LRS'
  'Premium_ZRS'
  'Standard_GZRS'
  'Standard_RAGZRS'
])
param storageSKU string = 'Standard_LRS'

param location string = resourceGroup().location

var uniqueStorageName = '${storagePrefix}${uniqueString(resourceGroup().id)}'

resource stg 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2023-04-01' = {
  name: uniqueStorageName
  location: location
  sku: {
    name: storageSKU
  }
  kind: 'StorageV2'
  properties: {
    supportsHttpsTrafficOnly: true
  }
}

output storageEndpoint object = stg.properties.primaryEndpoints

The Bicep file requires one parameter called storagePrefix with 3 to 11 characters.

You can put the file anywhere in the repository. The workflow sample in the next section assumes the Bicep file is named main.bicep, and it's stored at the root of your repository.

Create workflow

A workflow defines the steps to execute when triggered. It's a YAML (.yml) file in the .github/workflows/ path of your repository. The workflow file extension can be either .yml or .yaml.

To create a workflow, take the following steps:

  1. From your GitHub repository, select Actions from the top menu.

  2. Select New workflow.

  3. Select set up a workflow yourself.

  4. Rename the workflow file if you prefer a different name other than main.yml. For example: deployBicepFile.yml.

  5. Replace the content of the yml file with the following code:

    yml 
    on: [push]
name: Azure ARM
permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read
jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:

      # Checkout code
    - uses: actions/checkout@main

      # Log into Azure
    - uses: azure/login@v2
      with:
        client-id: ${{ secrets.AZURE_CLIENT_ID }}
        tenant-id: ${{ secrets.AZURE_TENANT_ID }}
        subscription-id: ${{ secrets.AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID }}

      # Deploy Bicep file
    - name: deploy
      uses: azure/arm-deploy@v1
      with:
        subscriptionId: ${{ secrets.AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION }}
        resourceGroupName: ${{ secrets.AZURE_RG }}
        template: ./main.bicep
        parameters: 'storagePrefix=mystore storageSKU=Standard_LRS'
        failOnStdErr: false

  6. Select Commit changes.

  7. Select Commit directly to the main branch.

  8. Select Commit new file (or Commit changes).

Updating either the workflow file or Bicep file triggers the workflow. The workflow starts right after you commit the changes.

Check workflow status

  1. Select the Actions tab. You see a Create deployBicepFile.yml workflow listed. It takes 1-2 minutes to run the workflow.
  2. Select the workflow to open it, and verify the Status is Success.

Clean up resources

When your resource group and repository are no longer needed, clean up the resources you deployed by deleting the resource group and your GitHub repository.

Azure CLI 
az group delete --name exampleRG

Next steps

Bicep file structure and syntax