Semantic model refresh by guest user (API or schedule)

[MichaelCameron]

Hi, I'm looking for some help with what might be a niche use-case.  Is there a way to set up a scheduled refresh for a guest user?  All users are guests in the tenant (a new tenant was set up to maintain isolation from the "main" generic tenant and ofer full control over resources - whether that was wise or not isn't really the issue).

Setting up a refresh is fine, the data credentials are entered using the more convoluted "login to an organisation" method and an on-demand refresh works.
Setting up a scheduled refresh or using an API call to initiate one (the preferred method if available) fails
It feels like whatever authentication is used in the refresh does not work (pure speculation on my part).  Users have a Power BI license from their home tenant and admin rights in the guest.

Can a guest user in the tenant configure this in a way so that authetication consistently works?
Can the user credentials for a refresh be configured via API calls?
Should I be using PowerBI API or Fabric API?  Both seem to be able to return similar data but I can't see a refresh option that works for Fabric (but the terminology changes are confusing to say the least).
Where can I get more details for log information?  All I can currently see are the few lines shown in the UI refresh history screens.

Hopefully that gets across the essentials but if I can provide more info I'd be happy to.

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Hi @MichaelCameron ,

I think this blog might help:Transferring ownership of reports in Power BI Serv... - Microsoft Fabric Community

Hope it helps!

Best regards,
Community Support Team_ Scott Chang

If this post helps then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[MichaelCameron]

Thanks but that isn't the issue. 

We have a tenant, dataTenant.onmicrosoft.com.
I am a user in mainTenant, me@maintenant.com.
I am a guest in dataTenant.onmicrosoft.com
I have ownership of a BI workspace.
In a semantic model in that workspace, I save valid data source credentials using me@maintenant.com
AN on-demand refresh works.
I set up a refresh scehdule, the scheduled refresh fails.

If I set up an additional user with similar access but as a member (not guest) of dataTenant.onmicrosoft.com, (e.g. me@dataTenant.onmicrosoft.com) and save the data source credentials using that user the refresh now works (without changing ownership of the workspace.

I hope that gives a clearer picture of the situation.

My thoughts on how to work around this:
We do have at least one user that can refresh the semantic model but had not intended to create multiple identities for users across different tenants, we wanted them to be able to use their existing account once they had been invited. 
I had thought that scheduling could be orchestrated elsewhere using API calls (which makes sense as it could be tagged on to the end of an existing pipeline meaning it was only refreshed when required) but it appears that a call to trigger an API refresh relies on the saved data source credentials (not the user authenticated to make the API call).  To make this work I think I need to be able to save valid data source credentials then trigger a refresh.

I hope that makes sense.

[Idrissshatila]

Hello @MichaelCameron ,

the schedule refresh can only be set by the dataset owner, so the p[erson that published the report can set the schedule refresh and not the guest users.

[MichaelCameron]

Thanks but that isn't the issue.

All users are guests, the workspace owner is a guest.  To achieve an API refresh I'd be happy to take ownership of the workspace if that was required and could be done using the API.   I believe we have done as much to allow a service principal to take ownership of a workspace.  This does not appear to change the data source credentials though and I believe that is the root of the problem, not the workspace ownership.