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Prerequisites for Access Requests

Last Updated: March 25, 2025

This page outlines the prerequisites necessary for submitting access requests, ensuring that these prerequisites are met helps streamline the approval process and enhances security. Below, you’ll find information on the required documentation and eligibility criteria that must be obtained before access to specific tools, systems, apps, and data can be granted. All items on this page have been alphabetized for ease of reference.

Note: When submitting an access request, you must have a VA email before submitting the request. If there is no VA email, the ticket will be closed. (Some access requires E-Qip or other proof of a favorable adjudication.)

Atlas/Vets.gov-write

Description:

Atlas is a comprehensive database designed to store and manage information about employees and their teams within multiple organizations.

Vets.gov-write is a VA GitHub Org team that's the primary source of being able to read and write the repos.

Prerequisites:

  • Part of the VA GitHub Organization

  • Team must exist in Atlas

Learn how to get added to Atlas and Vets.gov-write

Note: Access for vets.gov-write and Sidekiq expires every 90 days. To avoid losing your access, we recommend that you:

  • Set a reminder for yourself a week out before the expiration date

  • Our team reached out 72 hours prior to access expiration, please make sure you reply to this message and confirm you want to maintain access or you will lose it and our proactive ticket will be closed

  • Ensure you have GitHub email notifications on so that you are notified when our team reaches out to you about your expiration

This will both ensure that you maintain access to your tools to keep you working efficiently and will avoid unnecessary tickets to our team asking for us to restore access again. More information on requesting access to tools generally

AWS

Description:

Amazon Web Services is a cloud computing platform that provides a wide range of services and tools designed to support software development.

Prerequisites:

  • Needs to be in Atlas and/or on a Platform team roster

  • E-QIP Transmittal

Learn how to request access to AWS

DataDog

Description:

DataDog is a cloud-based monitoring and analytics platform designed to provide visibility into the performance, security, and health of the infrastructure, applications, and logs.

Prerequisites:

  • PIV Card and/or a temporary PIV exemption

  • If DevOps an Okta account is required

Learn how to request access to DataDog

Flipper

Description:

Flipper is a feature toggle management tool that can be used in both vets-api and vets-website. Use feature toggles to test out new functionality (applications, features, VA.gov content pages, Metalsmith) in the development, staging, or production environments for a set of users.

Prerequisites:

  • Needs to be in Atlas and/or on a Platform team roster

  • Part of the VA GitHub Organization

  • E-QIP Transmittal

Learn how to request access to Flipper

Office of CTO@VA

Description:

Slack is a cloud-based collaboration and communication platform designed to help teams work more effectively and efficiently.

Prerequisites:

  • A favorable adjudication is required before access will be granted

Learn how to get added to the Office of CTO@VA

PagerDuty

Description:

PagerDuty is an incident management and response platform that enables users to respond to critical incidents effectively. This is also a Office of CTO@VA Slack integration.

Prerequisites:

  • Needs to be in Atlas and/or on a Platform team roster

  • A VA.gov email address (invite will be sent here)

Learn how to request access to PagerDuty

Sentry

Description:

Sentry is use to track errors in code running VA.gov applications. Sentry allows teams to discover, triage, and prioritize errors in real-time, reducing overall Platform errors.

Prerequisites:

  • Needs to be in Atlas and/or on a Platform team roster

  • Part of the VA GitHub Organization

  • E-QIP Transmittal

  • SOCKS

Learn how to request access to Sentry

Sidekiq

Description:

Sidekiq is a framework for managing, processing, and monitoring background jobs via Redis.

Prerequisites:

  • Needs to be in Atlas and/or on a Platform team roster

  • Part of the VA GitHub Organization

  • E-QIP Transmittal (Production only)

Learn how to request access to Sidekiq

Note: Access for vets.gov-write and Sidekiq expires every 90 days. To avoid losing your access, we recommend that you:

  • Set a reminders for yourself a week out before the expiration date

  • Our team reaches out 72 hours prior to access expiration, please make sure you reply to this message and confirm you want to maintain access or you will lose it and our proactive ticket will be closed

  • Ensure you have GitHub email notifications on so that you are notified when our team reaches out to you about your expiration

This will both ensure that you maintain access to your tools to keep you working efficiently and will avoid unnecessary tickets to our team asking for us to restore access again.

SOCKS

Description:

SOCKS is a network protocol that routes traffic through a proxy server providing an additional layer of security.

Prerequisites:

  • A GitHub account

  • Part of the VA GitHub Organization (ensure you can access this page)

  • If you get a 404 even after you've signed in, contact your team lead to get access. If you still need help, reach out to Infrastructure in #vfs-platform-support. You cannot proceed without this access.

  • Needs to be in Atlas and/or on a Platform team roster

  • System needs to be up-to-date

Learn how to request access and configure SOCKS

TestRail

Description:

TestRail is a test management tool that helps software development teams organize, track, and manage their testing efforts.

Prerequisites:

  • Needs to be in Atlas and/or on a Platform team roster

  • Part of the VA GitHub Organization

  • Limited number of licenses, access may be postponed due to license availability

Learn how to request access to TestRail

VA GitHub Organization

Description:

Public resources for building on and in support of VA.gov.

Prerequisites:

  • A favorable adjudication is required before access will be granted

  • A VA.gov email address.

Learn how to get added to the VA GitHub Organization

Vets-API/ArgoCD

Description:

Vets API is a wrapper around VA data services with utilities and tools that support interaction with those services on behalf of a Veteran.

ArgoCD provides a UI for developers to see the application and manages the deployment by checking the desired state against the deployed state.

Prerequisites:

  • Needs to be in Atlas and/or on a Platform team roster

  • Part of the VA GitHub Organization

  • E-QIP Transmittal

  • SOCKS

Learn how to request access to Vets-API and ArgoCD


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