Forum Discussion

Mxd24's avatar
Mxd24
New Member
1 year ago
Solved

Issues with PowerBI Service for auth in Snowflake

Hello,  I'm fairly new to using Snowflake in PowerBI. I have a composite model that has 2 data sources (Snowflake, A company data model). When I published my dashboard to PowerBI Servcice, one of t...
Need Help
  • rajendraongole1's avatar
    rajendraongole1
    1 year ago

    Hi Mxd24  - The issue you're encountering with Snowflake in Power BI likely stems from user permissions and the way Snowflake handles authentication and role-based access control. 

    The error message suggests that the Snowflake credentials for the affected user are either:

    Invalid: The credentials provided (username/password) are incorrect.
    Insufficient Privileges: The user's DEFAULT_ROLE in Snowflake or other assigned roles lack access to the required resources (e.g., database, schema, tables, or warehouse).

    Since you're using a composite model, Power BI is likely passing each user's credentials to Snowflake during query execution. This means each user must have appropriate access in Snowflake.

    Yes, as long as you're using DirectQuery mode or composite models, every user must have appropriate access in Snowflake. Power BI does not cache the data but dynamically queries Snowflake using each user's credentials.

    To avoid this:

    You could switch to Import Mode, where only your credentials (as the report owner) are used to pull data. Users won't need Snowflake access, but they'll only see the data you imported at refresh time.

Poojara_D12's avatar
Poojara_D12
Icon for Super User rankSuper User
1 year ago

Hi Mxd24 

The error happens because the user lacks the required Snowflake role or privileges to access the data.

Key Points:

  1. User Permissions:

    • Each user needs a Snowflake account with the correct default role and privileges (e.g., SELECT on the database/schema and USAGE on the warehouse).
    • Without this, users can't view data in Power BI when using DirectQuery.

  2. Solutions:

    • Grant Access: Ensure users have the necessary permissions

 

GRANT SELECT ON SCHEMA my_database.my_schema TO ROLE user_role;
GRANT USAGE ON WAREHOUSE my_warehouse TO ROLE user_role;
​

 

 

  • Use a Service Account: Connect Power BI to Snowflake with a shared account and enforce Row-Level Security (RLS) in Power BI.
  • Switch to Import Mode: Data is preloaded into Power BI, so users don’t need Snowflake credentials.
  • Test User Credentials: In Power BI Service, verify the affected user's Data Source Credentials under Settings > Datasets.

Did I answer your question? Mark my post as a solution, this will help others!
If my response(s) assisted you in any way, don't forget to drop me a "Kudos" 🙂

Kind Regards,
Poojara
Data Analyst | MSBI Developer | Power BI Consultant
Consider Subscribing my YouTube for Beginners/Advance Concepts: https://youtube.com/@biconcepts?si=04iw9SYI2HN80HKS