Azure Compute built-in role

Compute Gallery Artifacts Publisher

Publishes and manages Azure Compute Gallery artifacts, images, and supporting image resources. The built-in definition explicitly excludes the gallery share action, so publishing content does not by itself authorize direct, tenant-wide, subscription-wide, or public sharing.

Control-plane actions (11)

• Microsoft.Compute/galleries/*
• Microsoft.Compute/locations/capsOperations/read
• Microsoft.Compute/locations/communityGalleries/*
• Microsoft.Compute/locations/sharedGalleries/*
• Microsoft.Compute/images/*
• Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/write
• Microsoft.Compute/disks/write
• Microsoft.Authorization/*/read
• Microsoft.Insights/alertRules/*
• Microsoft.Resources/deployments/*
• Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/resourceGroups/read

Data-plane actions (0)

None — this role grants no data-plane (data access) actions.

Excluded actions (1)

• Microsoft.Compute/galleries/share/action

Assignable scopes (1)

• /

Practical scope

Assign at the gallery or its resource group when the publisher owns all contained definitions and versions; broader assignments are inherited by child galleries. Permissions are control-plane Actions only and include gallery, image, VM, disk, deployment, and alert operations, with no DataActions.

Common use cases (2)

• Build, version, replicate, and maintain approved VM images or applications in an Azure Compute Gallery.
• Operate an image-publishing pipeline without allowing that pipeline to change the gallery sharing profile.

Prerequisites (2)

• Prepare and validate the source VM, disk, image, or application artifact and choose the gallery, definition, version, target regions, and replication settings.
• Grant source-resource access separately when the image-publishing workflow reads resources outside the assignment scope.

Best practices (3)

• Separate test and production galleries, protect production galleries with resource locks, and use version lifecycle controls.
• Use ZRS and sufficient replicas where available, and retain galleries in separate regions for disaster-recovery scenarios.
• Keep sharing authority separate from publishing authority and review image contents before replication.

Security considerations (3)

• The role can create, change, and delete gallery artifacts and images that become the trusted source for future VMs.
• A compromised publisher can distribute vulnerable software or secrets embedded in an image even though it cannot invoke gallery sharing.
• The definition can write VMs and disks and manage deployments, so it is broader than a simple image-version upload permission.

Assignment guidance

Assign to the image publishing group or pipeline at the gallery or dedicated gallery resource group. Keep Compute Gallery Sharing Admin separate, validate artifacts before publication, and narrow access to the source resources used by the publishing process.

Related roles (1)

• Compute Gallery Sharing Admin: Compute Gallery Sharing Admin is the separate role Microsoft documents for enabling direct gallery sharing; Artifacts Publisher explicitly excludes the gallery share action.

Editorial sources (6)

• Azure built-in roles for Compute →

  Supports: Description, Practical scope. Retrieved 2026-07-16.

• Steps to assign an Azure role →

  Supports: Assignment guidance. Retrieved 2026-07-16.

• Understand scope for Azure RBAC →

  Supports: Practical scope, Assignment guidance. Retrieved 2026-07-16.

• Best practices for Azure RBAC →

  Supports: Best practices, Assignment guidance. Retrieved 2026-07-16.

• Overview of Azure Compute Gallery →

  Supports: Description, Practical scope, Common use cases, Prerequisites, Assignment guidance. Retrieved 2026-07-16.

• Share Azure Compute Gallery resources directly with subscriptions and tenants →

  Supports: Best practices, Security considerations, Related roles. Retrieved 2026-07-16.

Official Microsoft Learn documentation →