Manage connections for the Microsoft Dataverse connector

The Microsoft Dataverse connector supports user, guest, and service principal connections for its triggers and actions. This document provides an overview of how connections work with the connector and how to keep them up to date.

Use connections in the current environment

When using Dataverse connector actions and triggers in the current environment, connections work differently than other connectors due to the connector's direct integration with Dataverse. A valid connection is required when saving or publishing the flow, but actions and triggers continue running even if the connection expires, as long as the related user is still enabled and has sufficient permissions in Dataverse. To stop a flow from executing Dataverse actions, either turn off the flow and cancel all runs, or revoke the user's permissions in Dataverse.

For instant flows, including flows run from Power Apps, the Run only users tile on the flow's detail page allows the flow owner to choose whether their connections or the user's connections are used when the flow runs. To save a flow with Dataverse connector set to use connections provided by users, the flow owner saving the flow must have the Dataverse privilege Act on behalf of another user (prvActOnBehalfOfAnotherUser), or the Delegate role, which includes this privilege.

Similarly, for flows with the When a row is created, modified, or deleted trigger, the Run as option allows the flow owner to run other actions in the flow using either the identity of the user who modified the row, or the owner of the row in Dataverse. To use one of these options, the flow owner saving the flow must have the Dataverse privilege Act on behalf of another user (prvActOnBehalfOfAnotherUser), or the Delegate role, which includes this privilege.

Use connections across environments

When using Dataverse actions and triggers that have the Environment parameter to connect to environments outside of the current environment, the connection must remain active for the actions and triggers to continue running. Actions with the Environment parameter don't yet support using connections provided by other users, or the Run as option in the When a row is created, modified, or deleted trigger.

Use service principal connections with the Dataverse connector

To use a service principal as the connection for actions or triggers in the Dataverse connector:

1. Create a service principal in Microsoft Entra ID.
2. Create a new client secret for the service principal, and make note of the secret.
3. Create an application user in Dataverse and associate it to the service principal.
4. Grant the application user sufficient Dataverse permissions for the tables and operations it needs to access or modify.
5. Open a Dataverse action in the cloud flows designer, select Add new connection, and choose Connect with service principal instead of Sign in.
6. Create a connection to this service principal from the cloud flow designer by providing a name, the service principal's application ID, client secret, and tenant ID.

Use guest users connections

Guest users must have a Power Automate license and Dataverse permissions assigned before their connections can be used with the Dataverse connector.