This guide walks you through creating a Service Principal in Azure — a special identity that allows a developer or automated tool to securely connect to your Power BI dataset without needing your personal login credentials.

This is conceptually similar to creating a username and password for a new user account — however, rather than being assigned to a person, these credentials are used by an application or automated process. This enables tasks such as deploying new reports or refreshing a dataset to be performed programmatically, without requiring manual intervention or the use of an individual's personal account.

📋 Before You Begin

Please make sure the following are in place before starting:

• You have access to the Azure Portal (portal.azure.com) with an account that has Global Administrator or Application Administrator permissions.
• You have access to the Power BI Admin Portal (app.powerbi.com) with Power BI Administrator permissions.
• You know the name of the Power BI Workspace that contains the dataset you want to share access to.

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Not sure if you have the right permissions? Check with your IT administrator before proceeding.

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Step 1: Register a New App in Azure

This step creates the "identity" (Service Principal) that will be used to access Power BI.

1. Go to portal.azure.com and sign in.
2. In the top search bar, type "App registrations" and click on it from the results.
3. Click + New registration near the top left.
4. Fill in the form:
   • Name: Give it a descriptive name, e.g. SeedMetrics-PowerBI-Access
   • Supported account types: Select "Accounts in this organizational directory only"
   • Redirect URI: Leave this blank
5. Click Register.

You'll be taken to the app's overview page. Keep this page open — you'll need values from it in later steps.

Step 2: Copy the App's Key Identifiers

On the app overview page, locate and copy the following values. You'll share these at the end.