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Setting up Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise

Your team's subscription to Visual Studio can also provide access to GitHub Enterprise.

About setup of Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise

Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise is a combined offering from Microsoft that allows a subscriber to use both Visual Studio and GitHub Enterprise. See About Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise.

This guide shows you how your team can get Visual Studio subscribers licensed and started with GitHub Enterprise.

Roles for Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise

Before setting up Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise, it's important to understand the roles for this combined offering.

RoleServiceDescriptionMore information
Subscriptions adminVisual Studio subscriptionPerson who assigns licenses for Visual Studio subscriptionOverview of admin responsibilities in Microsoft Docs
SubscriberVisual Studio subscriptionPerson who uses a license for Visual Studio subscriptionVisual Studio Subscriptions documentation in Microsoft Docs
Enterprise ownerGitHubPerson who has a personal account that's an administrator of an enterprise on GitHub.comRoles in an enterprise
Organization ownerGitHubPerson who has a personal account that's an owner of an organization in your team's enterprise on GitHub.comRoles in an organization
Enterprise memberGitHubPerson who has a personal account that's a member of an enterprise on GitHub.comRoles in an enterprise

Prerequisites

Setting up Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise

To set up Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise, members of your team must complete the following tasks.

One person may be able to complete the tasks because the person has all of the roles, but you may need to coordinate the tasks with multiple people. For more information, see Roles for Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise.

  1. An enterprise owner must create at least one organization in your enterprise on GitHub.com. For more information, see Adding organizations to your enterprise.

  2. The subscription admin must assign a license for Visual Studio to a subscriber in the administrator portal for Visual Studio subscriptions. For more information, see Overview of the Visual Studio Subscriptions Administrator Portal and Assign Visual Studio Licenses in the Visual Studio Subscriptions Administration Portal in Microsoft Docs.

  3. Optionally, if the subscription admin assigned licenses to subscribers in Visual Studio before adding GitHub Enterprise to the subscription, the subscription admin can move the subscribers to the combined offering in the Visual Studio administration portal. For more information, see Manage Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise in Microsoft Docs.

  4. If the subscription admin has not disabled email notifications, the subscriber will receive two confirmation emails. For more information, see Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise in Microsoft Docs.

  5. An organization owner must invite the subscriber to the organization on GitHub.com from step 1. The subscriber can accept the invitation with an existing personal account or create a new account. After the subscriber joins the organization, the subscriber becomes an enterprise member. For more information, see Inviting users to join your organization.

    Tip

    • While not required, we recommend that the organization owner sends an invitation to the same email address used for the subscriber's User Primary Name (UPN). When the email address on GitHub.com matches the subscriber's UPN, you can ensure that another enterprise does not claim the subscriber's license.
    • If the subscriber accepts the invitation to the organization with an existing personal account on GitHub.com, we recommend that the subscriber add the email address they use for Visual Studio to their personal account on GitHub.com. For more information, see Adding an email address to your GitHub account.
    • If the organization owner must invite a large number of subscribers, a script may make the process faster. For more information, see the sample PowerShell script in the github/platform-samples repository.

After Visual Studio subscriptions with GitHub Enterprise is set up for subscribers on your team, enterprise owners can review licensing information on GitHub.com. For more information, see Viewing the subscription and usage for your enterprise account.

Further reading