Service Account used to connect a dataset to Azure source

[SBrown_Murphy]

Currently reports are being created that source their data from Azure SQL databases.  The datasets are published to premium workspace associated to capacity.  The refreshes are scheduled and use the publisher's credentials. The problem is the publisher has to refresh their connection every 90 days when their password changes and someone else has to take over the dataset if the original publisher leaves our company.  Is there a way to setup a dataset to refresh against Azure using some sort of generic account or an account that is not associated to a person?

[SBrown_Murphy · Accepted solution]

My SOLUTION:
The solution we came up with was to create a service princible account and then use it to create gateway connections to the Synaps Database or to the SQL Cloud database(s).  Then using security AD Groups to give our report developers access to those connections. 

From the point of view of our report developers their conections to cloud data sources work no differently then the on-prem connections do.

This also satifies our security team because the service princible's "credentuils" are know by a small group of admins.

[christinepayton]

Yes, you can do this for any source. Just "take over" the dataset with a service account in M365, where that account has a PBI license and permission on the connection (if you're using a gateway, on the gateway connection, otherwise direct permission on the cloud source). The publisher can still republish over the report and it will not affect the ownership after the first takeover event. 

You need to log in as the service account to do the initial takeover. I did see recently where service principals are now becoming a "thing" in PBI so perhaps that will be a better route in the future (since they don't require login), but I've not used them yet.