Connect allows your Enterprise Server instance to connect to your enterprise on Enterprise Cloud in limited ways.
After you enable Connect, you can choose which features to enable. For example, you can:
- Automatically sync license usage between environments
- Unify search results and user contribution data
- Enable features that rely on .com, such as Dependabot alerts for security vulnerabilities that are tracked in the Advisory Database
About the connection
To enable Connect, you configure a connection between your Enterprise Server instance and an enterprise account on .com or GHE.com. The connection uses HTTPS over ports 443 or 80 and is secured by TLS.
- Connect does not open your Enterprise Server instance to the public internet.
- None of your enterprise's private data is exposed to Enterprise Cloud users.
- Connect transmits only the limited data needed for the features you enable. Unless you enable license sync, no personal data is transmitted. For more information, see Data transmission.
- Enabling Connect will not allow Enterprise Cloud users to make changes to Enterprise Server.
Connect features
After you configure the connection between your Enterprise Server instance and Enterprise Cloud, you can enable individual features of Connect.
If you're connecting to an enterprise on GHE.com:
- Server Statistics is not available.
- .com actions are not available.
| Feature | Description | More information |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic user license sync | Manage license usage across your Enterprise deployments by automatically syncing user licenses from your Enterprise Server instance to Enterprise Cloud. | Enabling automatic user license sync for your enterprise |
| Dependabot | Allow users to find and fix vulnerabilities in code dependencies. | Enabling Dependabot for your enterprise |
| .com actions | Allow users to use actions from .com in public workflow files. | Enabling automatic access to .com actions using Connect |
| Server Statistics | Analyze your own aggregate data from Enterprise Server, and help us improve products. | Enabling Server Statistics for your enterprise |
| Unified search | Allow users to include repositories on Enterprise Cloud in their search results when searching from your Enterprise Server instance. | Enabling unified search for your enterprise |
| Unified contributions | Allow users to include anonymized contribution counts for their work on your Enterprise Server instance in their contribution graphs on Enterprise Cloud. | Enabling unified contributions for your enterprise |
Data transmission
When Connect is enabled, a record on Enterprise Cloud stores information about the connection. If you enable individual features of Connect, additional data is transmitted.
Note
No repositories, issues, or pull requests are ever transmitted from Enterprise Server to Enterprise Cloud by Connect.
Data transmitted when Connect is enabled
When you enable Connect or specific Connect features, a record on Enterprise Cloud stores the following information about the connection.
- The public key portion of your Enterprise Server license
- A hash of your Enterprise Server license
- The customer name on your Enterprise Server license
- The version of your Enterprise Server instance
- The hostname of your Enterprise Server instance
- The enterprise account on Enterprise Cloud that's connected to your Enterprise Server instance
- The authentication token that's used by your Enterprise Server instance to make requests to Enterprise Cloud
- If Transport Layer Security (TLS) is enabled and configured on your Enterprise Server instance
- The Connect features that are enabled on your Enterprise Server instance, and the date and time of enablement
- The dormancy threshold for your enterprise
- The number of dormant users for your enterprise
- A count of license-consuming seats, which does not include suspended users
Connect syncs the above connection data between your Enterprise Server instance and Enterprise Cloud weekly, starting from the day and approximate time that Connect was enabled.
Data transmitted by individual features of Connect
Additional data is transmitted if you enable individual features of Connect.
| Feature | Data | Which way does the data flow? | Where is the data used? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic user license sync | Each Enterprise Server user's user ID and email addresses, and whether the user consumes a license for Advanced Security. | From Enterprise Server to Enterprise Cloud | Enterprise Cloud |
| Dependabot alerts | Vulnerability alerts | From .com to Enterprise Server | Enterprise Server |
| Dependabot updates | Dependencies and the metadata for each dependency's repository If a dependency is stored in a private repository on .com, data will only be transmitted if Dependabot is configured and authorized to access that repository. | From .com to Enterprise Server | Enterprise Server |
| .com actions | Name of action, action (YAML file from Marketplace) | From .com to Enterprise Server From Enterprise Server to .com | Enterprise Server |
| Server Statistics | Aggregate metrics about your usage of Enterprise Server. For the complete list of metrics, see About Server Statistics. | From Enterprise Server to Enterprise Cloud | Enterprise Cloud |
| Unified search | Search terms, search results | From Enterprise Cloud to Enterprise Server From Enterprise Server to Enterprise Cloud | Enterprise Server |
| Unified contributions | Contribution counts | From Enterprise Server to Enterprise Cloud | Enterprise Cloud |
Enabling Connect
To enable Connect, see the article for your Enterprise Cloud environment.