Which license for Power Bi Gateway reigisteree for making changes - ie. Recovery Key

[NoURider]

This is a double post - in case these older thread is not floated to top. 
Yesterday, installed On-premise Power Bi Gateway (Standard) for first time. Version 3000.270.10 (May 2025). During install at step Email address to use with this gateway, to register the gateway, used a 'new' account specific for Gateway. This account was not licensed in any way for any Cloud applications, nor given any Azure related Roles. Vanilla. The installation worked as expected. Gateway is 'up' etc within the Power Platform Admin Center. This account is the Admin of the gateway. 
Today, for testing re recovery key, I accessed On-premise Power Bi Gateway, logged on with the account used above without issue. This provided the Recovery Keys option. However when I set the Recovery Key and submit for the change
Received the following error:
(including all detail for completeness...but the jist is ErrorCode: UserNotLicensed
So what license needs to be applied to the user to allow for these types of changes?

Error: 

One or more errors occurred.
Response status code does not indicate success: 401 (Unauthorized)
Request Id: f0426fc5-ceca-4cde-9ace-58cab24d2312
Timestamp: 6/4/2025 3:53:21 PM +00:00
ErrorCode: UserNotLicensed

at Microsoft.PowerBI.DataMovement.Pipeline.ExternalClient.PowerBIDataMovementClientExtensions.<EnsureSuccessfulDMMSRequestAsync>d__0.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
at Microsoft.PowerBI.DataMovement.Pipeline.ExternalClient.PowerBIDataMovementClientExtensions.<DiscoverDatasourcesForGatewayAsync>d__5`1.MoveNext()

[Poojara_D12 · Accepted solution]

Hi @NoURider 

The error you're encountering—ErrorCode: UserNotLicensed—occurs because the account used to register and administer the On-premises Data Gateway lacks a valid Power BI license, which is required for certain administrative operations, including setting or updating the recovery key. While it's true that gateway installation can be performed with a basic unlicensed Azure AD user, modifying gateway settings (like the recovery key) involves calls to Power BI services that require at least a Power BI Pro license or equivalent (such as a Fabric license with workspace permissions). Essentially, Power BI treats these actions as service interactions that need to be performed by a licensed user who is authorized to manage cloud resources. To resolve this, assign a Power BI Pro license (or Fabric SKU if applicable) to the gateway admin account. Once licensed, the user should be able to log into the Gateway app, update recovery keys, and perform other administrative tasks without the 401 Unauthorized error. This is a common scenario in secure environments where service accounts are deliberately created without licenses, but Power BI’s backend still expects license validation for any privileged action that touches cloud services.

[collinq]

Hi @NoURider ,

The user will need to have a PRO license at the minimum.  I would suggest that this user that you are using for the gateway be a service account that has a password that does not expire.  

[v-achippa]

Hi @NoURider,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community.

Thank you @collinq for the prompt response.

As we haven’t heard back from you, we wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided by the user resolved your issue? or let us know if you need any further assistance. 

If any response resolved your issue, please mark it as "Accept as solution" and click "Yes" if you found it helpful.

Thanks and regards,

Anjan Kumar Chippa

[v-achippa]

Hi @NoURider,

As we haven’t heard back from you, we wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided by the user resolved your issue.

If any response resolved your issue, please mark it as "Accept as solution" and click "Yes" if you found it helpful.

Thanks and regards,

Anjan Kumar Chippa

[v-achippa]

Hi @NoURider,

We wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided by the user resolved your issue.

If any response resolved your issue, please mark it as "Accept as solution" and click "Yes" if you found it helpful.

Thanks and regards,

Anjan Kumar Chippa