How to share a workspace with an external user NO AZURE

[Anonymous]

Hi!  I've developed a few Power BI reports, and we wish to share some of them with a reseller partner, so that partner can see data for their customers.

We are not set up with Azure - our app runs on AWS, and the rest of the company is primarily Google, not MS, focused.  PBI is the only real Microsoft tool we use broadly.

I've set up a workspace for partners, put the reports in there, and tried to email a report to myself on a different domain as a test - I get the error:  "these email addresses are invalid or duplicate" - of course, it is not a duplicate, but it may be invalid.  How do I make it valid?

How can I share these reports with our partner?  

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Tom!  I'm learning there are many levels to the beast.  I'll dig into that today and see if I can make this work - much appreciated!

[TomMartens · Accepted solution]

Hey @Anonymous ,

when you have Power BI, you have an Azure AD 😉

You have to make sure that people outside your domain (external users), are added to the Azure Active Directory. This article how content can be added to external users: Distribute content to external guest users with Azure AD B2B - Power BI | Microsoft Docs
Next - it's better to create a Power BI App and provide access to the app instead of adding external users to the workspace.

You also have to be aware that external have to be provided with Power BI licenses, this is not necessary if you provide access to an app, and the app is backed by Premium capacity.

Hopefully, this helps to tackle your challenge.

Regards,

Tom

[Anonymous]

Hi Tom,

OK - that seems to have worked.  Some details in case anyone else gets as crossed up as I was:

1)  When the linked article says to create the user in Azure AD, IF YOU DON'T USE AZURE, you get the same result if you add the user as a Guest user (no charge) on your corporate Microsoft 365 account.  

2)  When you are editing the app, in the upper-right corner is a Settings gear and an access icon - this is where you grant access to the icon.  If you've created the guest user in Microsoft 365, you should be able to type their name in and, with a few keystrokes, the auto-complete will bring up their name.

3)  I did not get an email inviting me to the app - I needed to email the app (link is provided when you go to share the app) to my test account, and then I could click on the link and view the app.  Note that I did NOT have a Power BI license on that account...