Getting Started for Release Administrators
Release Administrators configure and maintain Digital.ai Release at the application level. This guide covers roles and permissions, folder-level teams, system settings, global variables and connections, and where to get help when something goes wrong.
In Release SaaS, Digital.ai manages the server, the database, upgrades, plugins, and the license, so those administration tasks do not apply. The System Administrator manages user accounts, identity providers, and Platform group membership. See Platform Management.
Who This Guide Is For
This guide is for users who:
- Coordinate with the System Administrator on Digital.ai Platform user groups.
- Define global roles and assign global permissions inside Release.
- Configure folder-level teams and permissions.
- Configure system settings such as risk profiles.
- Maintain global variables and global connections.
- Perform first-line triage of Release issues before contacting Digital.ai support.
Access and Prerequisites
Administrator tasks require the Admin global permission in Release. In Release SaaS, this permission comes from membership of the Release Admin user group in the Digital.ai Platform.
To verify your access, go to Settings > Users and Permissions > Permissions and confirm that your role is listed next to the Admin action.
For the three preconfigured user groups and the global permissions each one carries, see User Group Permissions.
Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions
Release uses a layered access control model:
| Layer | Scope | Configured By |
|---|---|---|
| Platform user groups | Membership that maps to Release global permissions | System Administrator, in the Digital.ai Platform |
| Global roles | Groups of users assigned global permissions | Release Administrator |
| Folder teams | Access to templates and releases within a folder | Release Administrator or Folder Owner |
| Release teams | Access to a specific release | Release Engineer or Release Manager |
For the full overview of how these layers interact, see Users, Roles, Teams, and Permissions.
Managing Users
In Release SaaS, users are created and authenticated through the Digital.ai Platform, and their group membership synchronizes to Release automatically. Coordinate with the System Administrator to assign each user to one of the preconfigured groups, Release Admin, Release Editor, or Release Read Only. The corresponding global permissions then apply in Release.
- To create and manage user accounts, see Manage Users in the Digital.ai Platform documentation.
- To connect your own identity provider, see Manage Identity Providers.
- To review the users that have synchronized into Release, see Manage Users.
- For user account options within Release, see User Settings.
Configuring Global Roles
A role is a named group that you assign to users. Global permissions are then assigned to roles, not to individual users. Use roles when you need access control that is more granular than the three preconfigured Platform groups.
To create a role, go to Settings > Users and Permissions > Roles, enter a role name, and add users to the role in the Principals field. For more information, see Global Roles.
Assigning Global Permissions
Global permissions control what actions a role can perform across the entire Release instance.
| Permission | What It Allows |
|---|---|
| Admin | Full access to all settings and administration functions |
| Edit Security | Manage users, roles, and permissions |
| Create Template | Create new release templates |
| Create Release | Create new releases |
| View Reports and Digital.ai Analytics | Access global and analytics dashboards |
| Create Custom dashboards | Create, edit, or delete a custom dashboard |
| Edit environments | Create, edit, or delete deployment environments |
To assign permissions, go to Settings > Users and Permissions > Permissions and enter the role name in the Roles column for each action. For more information, see Global Permissions.
Configuring Folder-Level Teams and Permissions
Folder teams control access to all content within a folder: templates, releases, workflows, and connections. Setting permissions at the folder level avoids configuring permissions on each individual template.
To configure a folder team, go to Overview > Folders, select the folder, and open Teams & Permissions. Add teams, assign users or roles to each team, and set template-level and release-level permissions per team. For more information, see Folder Teams and Permissions.
Configuring System Settings
System settings are configured under Settings > System Settings. Changes take effect immediately unless noted otherwise. For an overview of the available settings, see System Settings.
Risk Profile Settings
Risk profiles define the criteria used to calculate a release's risk level. Adjust risk thresholds and weights to match your organization's standards. See Risk Profile Settings and Configure Risk Calculation.
Notifications
Release sends email notifications for task assignments, task failures, and release state changes. In Release SaaS, Digital.ai operates the outbound mail service, so there is no SMTP server for you to configure. For the list of events that generate a notification and how to customize the templates, see Configure Notifications.
To let users complete tasks by replying to a notification email, configure the mail server that the Remote Completion plugin polls. See Configure Email Servers for Remote Completion Plugin.
Managing Global Variables
Global variables are key-value pairs available to all templates and releases across the instance. Use them for values shared across teams, such as a shared Jira project key or a common environment URL.
To create a global variable, go to Configuration > Global Variables and enter a name and value. Global variables are referenced in templates and tasks using the syntax ${global.variableName}. For more information, see Configure Global Variables.
Managing Global Connections
Global connections are configured at the instance level and are available to all templates and releases. They store credentials and endpoint URLs for external tools, such as Jenkins, Jira, and ServiceNow.
To add a global connection, go to Configuration > Connections, select the connection type, and fill in the endpoint URL and credentials. For more information, see Connections. For folder-scoped connections, where different teams use different tool instances, see Getting Started for Release Engineers.
Troubleshooting
Digital.ai monitors and maintains the Release SaaS infrastructure, so server logs and diagnostic bundles are not exposed to you. Start with the checks you can perform in the UI, then raise the issue with Digital.ai.
First-Line Checks
- Verify that the affected user has the correct user group, role, and permissions for the action they are attempting.
- Open the release History to see the recorded actions and error messages around the time the issue occurred.
- For a failed automated task, check the task's output in the Task Drawer and confirm that the connection it uses is still valid.
- Confirm that the external system the task calls is reachable from the Release SaaS environment.
Getting Support
For anything you cannot resolve from the UI, contact your assigned Digital.ai representative. Include the release or task identifier and the time the issue occurred. See Support and Contact.
For template and folder design, coordinate with your Release Engineers. See Getting Started for Release Engineers. For identity provider and Release Runner setup, coordinate with your System Administrator. See Getting Started for System Administrators.