Accidental writeback to database risk "admin has granted access, credentials are not required"?

[trev1972a]

Hey all

I have been using power bi for a little while, now and although i have read that power bi cant write back to an sql server by accident i do use an account with read only database access to be extra safe, i do the same for automated exel spreadsheets that connect to the database, using a read only account.

However when manually refreshing a dataset i noticed the following message on app.poweri.com 

"admin has granted access, credentials are not required"

Does this mean i have inadvertently granted elevated permissions?  i am unfamiliar with the message if anyone can help. Do i have any reason to be concerned? 

Thanks.

Thanks.

[trev1972a]

Just wanted to say how much i appreciate the responses by the way, the reason i checked is that the reports i am being asked to do are getting more and more complicated- with multiple data sources, combined columns, dax calculated columns and- a heck of a lot of data transformation in power query.  It suddenly hit me that i had never checked that only the imported data is being transformed.

I hope that with more experience i can repay the favours to the helpful people here.

[aj1973 · Accepted solution]

You will, just be patient with Power BI as it is a huge SaaS tool with a lots of infos. Good luck.

Please mark this thread as accepted for the rest of the community

[aj1973]

Hi @trev1972a 

For sure Power BI is a read only SaaS, you don't have to be worried about Power bi writing back to any source.

[trev1972a]

Thanks 🙂 i know how paranoid i sound

I will stop wasting energy worrying about it, thanks again 🙂

[trev1972a]

It has been a long time since i set up the data gateway but it isnt running as a domain user, it is running as 

NT SERVICE\PBIEgwService  if that helps?

I know i probably seem paranoid but really want minimal priveliges possible.

[aj1973]

It sounds like your Gateway connection to the source is not configured the right way.

Here is a link to help

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/service-gateway-sql-tutorial

[trev1972a]

Hi aj1973

Everything is updating fine on the refresh schedule? and the gateway shows as online?

I have maybe a dozen reports updating twice daily and they all refresh ok?

I have read the link, but it doesnt suggest there is any issue with using the default service account on the gateway?

I am tempted not to mess as it is currently working, based on the earlier assurance that i cant accidentally damage our database through power BI

Thanks again.