401 error trying to fetch Power BI Activity Log

[pontushaglund]

I'm trying to use the Power BI REST API to fetch Power BI Usage Reports using a service principal. When using PowerShell I can fetch the reports using a user/password that has MFA turned on. My customer wants to use a service principal rather than a AD user that has MFA turned off.

I first call to get a token:

Using that token I call:

https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/admin/activityevents?startDateTime='2020-01-01T00:00:00.000Z'&end...

When calling this I get a 401 Unauthorized. 

Reading here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/power-bi/admin Under "Get Activity Events":

The user must have administrator rights (such as Office 365 Global Administrator or Power BI Service Administrator) to call this API.

Is it therefore not possible to get the activity logs using a service principal?

[VSmart]

Is This any solution I also try to get audit logs. Add my app to security group, give rights to this group but still get a 401 Unauthorized.

[lbendlin]

I assume your organization's IT team do not want to give these admin rights to a service principal login?

[pontushaglund]

I now tried adding the service principal to the role Power BI Admin in the Azure portal. This did not help, still getting 401 error.

This user is also part of a security group:

I've also allowed access for this security group in the Power BI portal:

[pontushaglund]

Is it even possible? I've added the service principal in the Power BI Admin portal. Still 401. Am I missing something?