Power BI On-Prem Gateway Network Folder Access Credential

[mcheng]

Hello All

We have a Power BI report, hosting in Power BI online, and refreshing network files via an on-prem gateway. When setting up the connection string, we couldn't put in credentials in any formats including username, domain/username, email, etc. It always returns invalid credentials, then I checked the "skip connection test", and it went through, and was able to schedule the refreshes without issue. Then when I check the Data Source Credentials, it says "admin has granted access, credentials are not required", does anyone know what admin account this is referring to? admin of the gateway or admin of the workspace? or someone else?

thank you !!

[mcheng]

Collinq, thanks again for your help

After tests, I can confirm that:

If the network files/folders do not require authentication, then you should NOT enter any credentials, just skip the testing, any credentials entered will return an invalid message, even you know that they are correct. 

If it requires authentication, then the credential is needed. Otherwise, it will fail

Microsoft should have added these as notes/explanations, it would save a lot of our time.

In both cases, the connection shows the same message "admin has granted access, credentials are not required"

[mcheng]

Hello Collinq, thanks for the quick reply!

This is interesting. The confusing part is why it says my Windows username and password are not valid. Even if the folder doesn't require authentication, it should still take the login credential. I will test out folders that actually require authentication.

Thanks

[collinq]

Hey @mcheng ,

I think you are in an odd situation where YOU can't do it but the admin set it up with those credentials so it doesn't matter about YOUR permissions.  Your idea about testing others should prove that out....

[collinq · Accepted solution]

Hey @mcheng ,

I believe that this is the message that you receive when the connection permissions are not required of the user.  So, the gateway/data source that was created is using those permissions and the individual user does not have to enter their own. So, the word "admin" is really about the data source connection itself.