How to take over connection ownership

[Bob_the_builder]

The issue is that when user creates a connection it is by default owned by the user who creates it, and the actual admin group needs to manually added afterwards. I'm trying to figure out is there option to "take ownership" or set on workspace level so that by default the connections would be owned by the user group, and not user. 

As a workspace admin I can take over item ownership by: Take ownership of Fabric items - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

But, with connections I am not able to find the procedure about how to take over a connection that is owned by someone else.

On the connections (under settings) I see only the connections that I have ownership, so there is no way to select connection created by someone else. 
What does the "Tenant administration" offer, I havent tried. Could that be the key for this?

[v-nmadadi-msft]

Hi @Bob_the_builder 

May I check if this issue has been resolved? If not, Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

Thank you

[v-nmadadi-msft]

Hi @Bob_the_builder 

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

Thank you.

[Srisakthi]

Hi @Bob_the_builder ,

In the connections page you can see the connections you created and for the connections you have added as a user.

1. It is better to have AD groups created and add necessary users of your project to it and whoever creates connetion they should add that particular group to the connections. 

2. Also it would be good to add Service Principal to the connections as well, so that your pipelines that use SPN will not break.

While adding users you can provide access accordingly whether they should have access to reshare or not.

Ref - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/data-factory/data-source-management#manage-users

Regards,

Srisakthi

[deborshi_nag]

Hello @Bob_the_builder like your name by the way! 

By default, admins do not have unrestricted access; only owners and those who have been intentionally included can view a connection. If you are unable to see it, you will need to ask the owner to share it or provide usage rights. Even Fabric Admins or Tenant Admins cannot access a connection unless it has been specifically shared with them—there are no shortcuts available.

[KevinChant]

You don't necessarily need to take it over, you can add additional owners to connections with code.

Here is how you can do it with PowerShell based on a previous solution I developed:

$permissions = fab acl get .connections/$pbi_connection_name.Connection -q [*].principal.id | Select-String $EntraObjectId

if ($permissions) {
Write-Host "✅ Permissions for $parameters.EntraObjectId already exist on the Power BI connection."
} else {
Write-Host "Adding permissions for $EntraObjectId to the Power BI connection."

$pbiconnectionid = fab get .connections/$pbi_connection_name.connection -q id

$body = @{
principal = @{
id = "$EntraObjectId}}"
type = "User"
}
role = "Owner"
} | ConvertTo-Json -Compress

# Create a temp file path and rite with UTF-8 WITHOUT BOM
$tempFile = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempFileName() + ".json"
$utf8Encoding = New-Object System.Text.UTF8Encoding $false
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllText($tempFile, $body, $utf8Encoding)

fab api -X post "connections/$pbiconnectionid/roleAssignments" -H "Content-Type=application/json" -i $tempFile
}

You can create the necessary PowerShell variables beforehand. Just to clarify, $EntraObjectId is the object id of the user you want to be the new owner.

I really hope this helps. If so, give it kudos and maybe even mark it as a solution.

[Bob_the_builder]

But you still need to be the owner right? I am looking for a solution for the case owner is not available. The controll to those connections owned by one person is lost, feels a bit confusing as an Capacity and workspace admin..

[v-nmadadi-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Bob_the_builder ,
Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Community forum.

Yes, you need to have administrator-level permissions to make this work. Since you are not the owner of the existing connection, you won’t be able to modify or reuse it. In this situation, the most practical and supported approach is to create a new connection using the same data source settings. This ensures that the connection is owned by you  and can be managed without permission constraints.

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you have any further queries.
Thank you

[Bob_the_builder]

Thank you. I really need to try this, looks promising. 

[AsgerLB]

Hi @Bob_the_builder 

Thanks for your question.

To address your last question first: No, the Tenant Administration toggle within the "Manage connections and gateways" page won't solve this specific challenge. That feature is limited to enabling or disabling specific tenant-level connection settings. If you’d like to see more functionality added there, I recommend voting for the idea here.

Regarding connection ownership: This is a known limitation in Power BI. While there isn't a "silver bullet" solution that covers every connection type in Fabric/PBI, I can offer more tailored suggestions if you can provide more detail. Could you clarify which data sources you are using and the connection type (On-premises, Virtual Network, or Cloud)?

As an example, if the connections are bound to On-premise or VNET gateways, being a gateway admin, allows you to manage all connections made on this gateway.

br

Asger

[Bob_the_builder]

This issue came up with connection to Azure Blob storage.