Options for non-personalized external data sharing

[NotebookEnjoyer]

Hello,

we are using external data sharing to have shortcuts cross-tenant. When you create a share, you enter one (and only one!) mail address. Apparently, this mail address must be associated with a Fabric account for the sharing to work. This arrangement seems highly counterproductive for us: First, we would need to create several shares for every team member to have access; second, the shares would then be tied to personal accounts instead of the security group that we have for exactly this kind of situation.

Is there a better way? This current mode of external sharing seems to be not very well designed.

[deborshi_nag]

Hello @NotebookEnjoyer 

For Fabric External Data Sharing (OneLake shortcuts):

• You must specify one recipient email per share
• That email must correspond to a Fabric‑capable identity
• There is no support for multiple emails per share
• No security groups
• No aliases

This is a known limitation today. External data shares are user‑bound, not group‑bound.

Workaround: Entra B2B guest + Fabric permissions

• Invite users via Entra B2B
• Add them to an Entra security group
• Grant Fabric workspace / Lakehouse access to the group

Change the Fabric tenant settings -

- Allow external guest users to access Fabric

- Allow sharing with external users

[NotebookEnjoyer]

How would I get the data to the other tenant with the workaround approach?

[OnurOz]

Do you want Shared access to the same data or Independent copy of the data in Tenant B?

These are very different architectures.

[NotebookEnjoyer]

I don't want an independent copy; I want the kind of access in tenant B that a shortcut would provide: read it as if it's just another table in the lakehouse.

[OnurOz]

Hi,

Why not using Azure AD B2B with Security Groups?

Instead of sharing directly to individual emails:

- Invite the external users into your tenant via Azure AD B2B.

- Add those users to a security group.

- Grant Fabric workspace or item access to that security group.

This way you manage access centrally and no need to create multiple shares per person.

This is the most scalable pattern.

Best

Onur

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[NotebookEnjoyer]

How would I get the data to the other tenant with this approach?

[deborshi_nag]

Hello @NotebookEnjoyer you don't get your data to the other tenant, however, with this approach you invite users of other tenant into yours using B2B guest and give them the appropriate access to your data i.e Lakehouse or Warehouse. 

Distribute Power BI Content to External Guest Users with Microsoft Entra B2B - Microsoft Fabric | Mi...

[v-aatheeque]

Hi @NotebookEnjoyer 

Following up to confirm if the earlier responses addressed your query. If not, please share your questions and we’ll assist further.

[v-aatheeque]

Hi @NotebookEnjoyer 

Have you had a chance to look through the responses shared earlier? If anything is still unclear, we’ll be happy to provide additional support.