External Powerbi

External Power BI Access

In DataHub, users are able to request permissions to share Power BI reports externally. In order to make the sharing of the reports safe and secure, a process has been put in place to ensure the reports are protected and viewable only by those the report is shared with. This process also ensures that the DataHub web app is protected from users who are not authorized to use it.

If a user needs to share a report externally, they will first need to request external access to the report. This triggers a notification to the DataHub admins to review the request and approve/deny it. If the DataHub admin chooses to approve the request, DataHub will create an external link and password which will automatically be emailed to the requesting user. The passwords are stored in the DataHub database using a secure hashing algorithm, along with the created external link and report metadata.

As mentioned above, the requesting user will receive an email with an external link and password which they can share with non-nrcan users. Access to the shared report will be valid for 90 days, however, should the DataHub admins choose to block access to it, they can simply revoke access using the admin panel in DataHub.

It is important to note that even though these reports sit on the existing DataHub website, the external access report page sits outside any Azure Active Directory (AD) validation, meaning that they would only require the report password and link to access the report. This also means that if they do not have any AD validation setup, they will not be able to access any other parts of the DataHub web app.