Azure blob - Account Key vs. Anonymous

[PJLNS]

Hello all,

I apologize if the answer to this question is too obvious, but I seem to be missing something.

When using the Azure blob connector in PBI, you are presented with the option of anonymous authentication, or account key. I understand that the drawback to using an account key is a lack of granular security controls, but even in testing pulling images down from blob storage set to private access with an account key, the connection does not work. Is anonymous authentication the only supported method for serving images to PowerBi from blob storage? If I am not mistaken, this would mean that any images you want to use in PBI would also be publicly accessible.

Any help in understanding is greatly appreciated, 

Thank you!

[PJLNS · Accepted solution]

Thank you for taking the time to respond. My issue specifically is with PowerBi seemingly requiring Anonymous authentication when pulling images from Azure blob storage. A solution has been found for our case, so I will share for others.

Rather than using the Azure Blob connector in PowerBi, we used the Powerapps connector to connect to a Powerapp which was connected to the Azure Blob storage. In our case we wanted the pictures to be filtered based on a folder (file name prefix in blob storage) and this was still possible using this method.

[emulic]

@PJLNS Cany ou please give some more detailed description of your solution? I.e. which kidn of Power App dd you create? I'm even not able to see Power Apps connector in Power BI Desktop. Do I need to istall something from marketplace or similar?

[v-piga-msft]

Hi @PJLNS ,

It seems that you have confused about the two authentication methods about connecting with Azure blob in power bi desktop.

1. Anonymous - this will only work if you've made your blob container public.  (this is invalid for most scenarios).
2. Account Key - This is the master account key, which has full permissions to the storage account.

For more details about the two above, please have a good look at the document below.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-auth

Best Regards,

Cherry