Types of authentication methods in Power BI service

[willatkinson]

Hi,

We are building reports based on files in SharePoint online and are having a few issues with access permisions.

When looking at credentials in the Power BI service for a report and we are presented with this:

 

 

 

What are these different authentication methods and how should they be used?

Cheers,

Will

[ibarrau]

Hi. Sharepoint has a login standard based on OAuth2. It means a microsoft account with permission to the sharepoint files. Try that one. 

Anonymous means no credentials for sources that won't need. Basic is for classic database credentials. Service principal is used as service account for automating some procceses. This last might need a sync with IT because they might have standards or rules for that.

I hope that helps,

[willatkinson]

Thanks @ibarrau this is really helpful. 

So if a report is built by someone who has access to a sharepoint site, and they use a file in the site as a source for their report. If they authenticate the report using OAuth2, whoever they share the report with will be able to view the data even if they don't have access to the sharepoint site?

[ibarrau · Accepted solution]

Yes. There are two authentications. First the development phase one. The person using PowerBi Desktop will connect and build a report importing the data.

Once it's published, Power Bi Service will ask a new credential to keep the data up to date from the cloud to the Sharepoint. For any of those connections, the OAuth2 with the microsoft professional account should have permission to see the file.

After all is configured. You are importing data from sharepoint automatically. It's up to the owner of the report to whom they will share the report. People reading the reporting won't need access to sharepoint, only to the power bi report because the data is imported and the security now depends on PowerBi.

I hope that make sense