How to disable the "Create a free cluster" redirect on first Data Explorer login?

Question

I teach my students how to use KQL to search in Data Explorer and Sentinel. To accomplish that, I have the following workflow:

1. Create a database in a Data Explorer cluster I own
2. Create a new Azure user
3. Assign that new Azure user permission to read the database
4. Send my client the details they need to access the database:
   1. Azure username and password
   2. Link to the database, e.g. https://dataexplorer.azure.com/clusters/myclustername.northeurope/databases/client-database-1234abcd

The problem is that when my student clicks on the link and logs in, they are brought to https://dataexplorer.azure.com/publicfreecluster, as shown below.

This completely breaks my flow because:

1. If they choose to create their own cluster, then they aren't interacting with the database I created for them in my cluster
2. If they choose "Skip and sign in", then they are not properly redirected to the link I gave them. Consequently, the database I have given them access to does not show up in their list of connections because they haven't accessed my link and chosen to trust the database connection yet (pop-up shown below that normally prompts you to trust the connection)

Currently, the way my students access the database I have assigned them is:

1. Click on the link I send them
2. Sign in
3. Close the tab when they get the "Create a free cluster" page (and optionally sign out)
4. Click on my link again (and sign in again if needed)
5. This time the "Create a free cluster" page is no longer shown and they are correctly brought to the correct location

This isn't very pleasant. Can I somehow turn off the "Create a free cluster" page for the user I create?

Answer 1

Hello @42726446,

welcome to this moderated Azure community forum.

I expect you see the normal behavior.

You can share your idea here , Microsoft is checking these ideas regularly.

Still, letting students have a free Azure Data Explorer is a good thing, I think.

This way they can do a lot of experiments without burning Azure credits.

Why not have them create and then add your database as a connection?

So what about this flow (from the top of my mind):

1. let them go to the free cluster page and sign up for the free cluster using the same email address at https://dataexplorer.azure.com/freecluster.
2. Let them go to the Query tab page:

3. Let them add a connection:

4. Let them fill in the URI of your cluster:

5. I expect the database is shown.

Can you check if this works for your students too?

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