topic REST API and Object Level Security in Developer

REST API and Object Level Security

mathsab — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 07:55:10 GMT

Hello,

I have a problem concerning the Power BI REST API and OLS security.

I'm using the REST API with a Service Principal, in particular the “GetScanResult” call I get metadata that I exploit to make documentation.

In particular, I obtain dataset metadata with the list of tables and their description, the list of columns and their description, and the list of measures and their description.

This works perfectly except for one dataset, where an OLS security is applied. This completely blocks the extraction of the metadata mentioned.

I've tried several solutions, such as integrating the Service Principal into a Workspace Administrator role, or integrating the Service Principal into a "full access" OLS security role, but the metadata still won't come up.

Have you encountered this before? Does anyone have a solution?

Thanks for your help!

Re: REST API and Object Level Security

v-achippa — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 10:35:44 GMT

Hi @mathsab,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community.

Power BI enforces OLS at the engine level, when metadata is requested through APIs, OLS hides metadata from all users including Service Principals. So even there is admin or scan level access OLS still applies. Currently there is no way to skip OLS via the API, even with full workspace or dataset level permissions. At this time this is a known limitation with the security and data protection model, so please follow below steps:

Temporarily disable OLS during the metadata scan, if the security policy allows.
Create a duplicate of the dataset without OLS for documentation purposes.

If this post helps, then please consider Accepting as solution to help the other members find it more quickly, don't forget to give a "Kudos" – I’d truly appreciate it!

Thanks and regards,

Anjan Kumar Chippa