Common Questions About GitHub Authentication Changes Made on August 13th

What change was made?

GitHub recently announced they will be requiring the use of token-based authentication. You can read more about this change here. Within Looker you’ll need to make sure that you have configured your git connections to use tokens instead of user name and password.

How does this affect my instance?
Your workflow in Looker should only be interrupted by this change if you have projects that connect to git using HTTPS, and these projects do not have two factor authentication (2FA) setup. For projects connected to git using HTTPS with a password, git actions will not be available until the project's git connection is reconfigured with one of the two options listed below.

Option 1.) Continue using HTTPS but re-configure to use a token for authentication, as described in this community article.

Option 2.)  Reconfigure and connect to GitHub using SSH instead of HTTPS.

How do I know if I’m using SSH or HTTPS?
You can check to see how your project is connected to git by running a git connection test from the git action panel to see your remote repository URL. If this URL starts with “https://github” it is configured using https, if it starts with git@ it is configured using ssh.

Will I lose any development by reconfiguring?
The reconfiguration process should just be changing how you are authenticating into your git repository from Looker, so no commits that are there when you reconfigure should get lost. You may want to ensure that all users have committed their changes before you reconfigure.

What if I have a bare repo? Will I be affected?
No, bar repos are not connected to GitHub or any other remote repo. This change only affects GitHub with password authentication.

What if I have a looker-hosted remote repository?
Looker hosted repositories are connected with ssh keys or two factor authentication, so these should not be affected by this change.

Will there be downtime while I reconfigure the connection?
There will be no downtime for your instance during a git connection reconfiguration. For projects connected to git that use HTTPS with a password, git actions (ex. Committing changes or pulling from production) will not be available until the project's Git connection is reconfigured.

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Last update:
‎08-12-2021 05:17 PM
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