Connecting with Azure AD token in PowerBI

[KaushikMaji]

Hello,

We are trying to connect Databricks SQL endpoint from PowerBi using Azure AD service principal, which has been added to Databricks workspace using SCIM APIs. Now, when we open connection to Databricks in powerbi desktop and provide Azure AD access token (as mentioned in link below), we get error saying "We couldn't authenticate with the credentials provided. Please try again." (screenshot below).

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/integrations/bi/power-bi#---connect-with-power-bi-...

Ultimate goal is to use Service Principal credentials instead of individual credentials, when we publish the dataset to power bi service and we hope Powerbi service will manage the oAuth2 flow to get the token.

May you please suggest what is possible?

I have managed to get a PAT for the Service Principal that is added to workspace, using the SCIM APIs. But, I don't want to use PAT as it is static and if anyone gets hold of it, they can easily get into the data.

Thanks and Regards,

Kaushik Maji

[-werners- · Accepted solution]

At the moment I do not think that is possible.

The help page mentions:

An Azure Active Directory token (recommended), an Azure Databricks personal access token, or your Azure Active Directory account credentials.

These methods are all user bound, so no service principal.

What we do is using a '*****' user which has access to Databricks and powerbi.

[KaushikMaji]

Thanks for your reply. I didnt get your last point. What user? its masked in your reponse

[-werners-]

Hm redacted...

Yea we just use a default userID which is only used for powerBi connectivity

[venkat-bodempud]

@Kaushik Maji​ 

Hi Kaushik,

I am currently working implementing similar to this thread. I need your help here as you already have exposure around the same.

1. connecting to azure data bricks using service principal.
2. use service principal based authentication for configuring azure data bricks data source in power bi service.
3. what is the authentication type we should use?
4. what would be the username and password should be used in Power BI Service .

I request you to help me. I am happy to provide you more information if required.

Thanks

Venkat