{"id":104164,"date":"2024-10-16T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/?p=104164"},"modified":"2026-10-16T12:30:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T12:30:34","slug":"using-a-service-account-in-microsoft-fabric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/data-analytics\/microsoft-fabric\/using-a-service-account-in-microsoft-fabric\/","title":{"rendered":"Using a Service Account in Microsoft Fabric"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Applications should never depend on user accounts for their own authentication. User accounts have unique security configurations, such as MFA and password expiration. See also lakehouse vs warehouse in Fabric.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applications can’t manage this kind of unique configuration. When the user changes the password, for example, the application may stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution for this is to give to the application their own identity. The application needs to be capable to use this kind of identity, which is called a Service Account. For more on this, see authenticating with a service account in Fabric.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Service Accounts support in Fabric<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cloud connections in Fabric<\/a> support the usage of service accounts. After we publish our semantic models, we can link them with the cloud connections configured to use the service accounts. For more on this, see securing Power BI access to Azure SQL with a VNet data gateway.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When creating a new cloud connection, Service Account is one of the authentication options. When we choose this option, we need to fill in the Tenant Id<\/strong>, Service Principal Id<\/strong> and Service principal key<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating a Service Account<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fabric and Azure environment are related by the same security system: a single directory managing all the authentication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this directory, the process to create a service account is called App Registration<\/strong>: You will register an app in Azure Entra (former Azure Active Directory) and this app will become a user which can receive permissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1: Navigate to “App registrations”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Azure Portal, App Registrations is inside the Entra ID<\/strong> feature (former Azure Active Directory). You can reach it by searching on the top search box, or going to Entra Id and finding it in the left menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2: Create a New App Registration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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