Dataflows connection to destination warehouse is failing with service principal

[Anonymous]

Hello People,

Hope everyone is doing well.

Today i encountered one strange issue. we have few dataflows created in our QA environment with user identity organizational account. And after creation they worked fine for few days, later ownership took over by our management. So from there on dataflow refreshes started failing even though connections created by previous owner. 

Scenario 1 - 

I ran the dataflow and owner was my colleague and dataflow failed with below error not sure what it meant.
There was a problem refreshing the dataflow. Please review the error message(s) below, fix the problem, and try again. (Request ID: 9678bab2-4ae7-4432-bcba-0635ada101).

Scenario-2 -

Later when i opened dataflow, it opened in readonly mode. Then i took over the ownership and gave my account for sign in at source and sink side. it is still failing and giving below error at destination level.

There was a problem refreshing the dataflow: "Data source credentials are missing or invalid. Please update the connection credentials in settings, and try again.". Error code: 999999. (Request ID: 6b8e24d5-9c21-47a8-9820-55442ec3b69b).

I didnt get whats happening over there because when i verified the steps inside dataflow for each query its fine so ideally it should succeed as i took over the ownership too. Is it because of new connection created at sink side. Even if it succeeds in future if any one took over the ownership then it will again fail. And am running these dataflows via data pipeline so there also they are failing. My thought is instead of creating the connections to destination via organization account as it is giving an issue. what will happen if we use service principal option as i see there is an option over there. so i tried that option and it is giving the below error not sure what permissions are missing for this at service principal level.

This is the exception am getting how to fix this,

Does any one faced this situation before i dont want to change the connections evertime for dataflows once it is created by anyone using service principal so if others want to run the dataflow they should be able to run it without any issuesbut itsnot happening.  H

Any help is really appreciable

Thanks

Pavan 

[v-karpurapud]

Hi @Anonymous 

We have not received a response from you regarding the query and were following up 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.

[v-karpurapud]

Hi @Anonymous 

I wanted to check if you’ve had a chance to review the information provided. If you have any further questions, please let us know. Has your issue been resolved? If not, please share more details so we can assist you further.

Thank You.

[v-karpurapud]

Hi @Anonymous 

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.

As @GilbertQ  mentioned, it is best to use a Service Principal with the correct permissions in the Power BI Admin Portal and Fabric workspace for reliable, ownership-independent management of Dataflows and Datasets. Set up a dedicated Service Principal in Entra ID, enable “Allow service principals to use Power BI APIs” for its security group in the Admin Portal, and assign it as Contributor or Admin in the target workspaces with Warehouse-level (db_owner) access. This setup ensures seamless refreshes and eliminates reliance on individual user credentials.

For enhanced scalability and security, you may also integrate automated deployment methods such as parameterized PBIT templates and Power BI REST APIs for consistent multi-workspace or multi-tenant management.

If you need further assistance or have additional questions, please let us know.

Regards,

Microsoft Fabric Community Support Team.

[Anonymous]

@v-karpurapud  I have implemented the changes but still it is retaining the previous workspace connection only. even i implemented the library variables feature and it is still not working. how to change the target connection in dataflows after the deployment

[v-karpurapud · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous 

After implementing Service Principals and library variables, please note that Dataflow destinations do not automatically update after deployment because the sink connection is stored statically within the Dataflow’s JSON definition. To update the destination, you need to explicitly modify the connection binding using the Power BI or Fabric REST API. Retrieve the Dataflow definition, replace the connectionId and objectId values with those of the target workspace’s warehouse, and then include the updated JSON payload in the request body. This process will rebind the Dataflow to the correct warehouse or lakehouse connection in the new workspace, ensuring accurate and environment-specific connectivity.

I hope this information is helpful. . If you have any further questions, please let us know. we can assist you further.

Regards,

Microsoft Fabric Community Support Team.

 

[GilbertQ]

Hi @Anonymous 

Unfortunately for data flows, that is how it currently works. Whoever the owner is also has to be the owner or connections to the data sources in order for it to refresh successfully. So if you change the owner, you're going to have to go in and edit the data sources to match the new owner.