Power Platform Dataverse Security Role: What You Need to Know

One of the key features of Power Platform Dataverse is its rich security model that can adapt to many business usage scenarios. This security model is based on the concept of security roles, which are collections of privileges that define what users can do with the data and resources in Power Platform Dataverse. In this blog, we will explain what security roles are, how they work, and how to use them in Power Platform Dataverse.

What are security roles?

Security roles are groups of privileges that control access to data and resources in Power Platform Dataverse. Privileges are the basic units of security that define what actions users can perform on a specific type of data or resource, such as create, read, write, delete, share, or assign. Privileges are combined with access levels, which define the scope of access that users have to the data or resource, such as user, business unit, parent-child business unit, organization, or none. For example, a user with the read privilege and the business unit access level can view the data or resource that belongs to their own business unit, but not the data or resource that belongs to other business units.

Security roles are assigned to users, teams, or app users, which are special types of users that are used by applications or services to access Power Platform Dataverse. Users can have multiple security roles, and the effective security is the sum of all the privileges and access levels that the user has from all the security roles. Teams can also have multiple security roles, and the users who are members of the team inherit the security roles from the team. App users can only have one security role, and the security role must be assigned by the system administrator.

How do security roles work?

Security roles work with other security concepts in Power Platform Dataverse to determine the effective security that users have. These security concepts include:

  • Business units: Business units are organizational units that define a security boundary. Every Power Platform Dataverse database has a single root business unit, and you can create child business units to segment your users and data. Users and teams are associated with a business unit, and the business unit determines the ownership of the data or resource that the user or team creates or owns. Business units also affect the access level of the security roles, as some access levels are based on the business unit hierarchy.
  • Record ownership: Record ownership is the relationship between a user or a team and a record in a table. Some tables in Power Platform Dataverse are owned by users or teams, which means that each record in the table has an owner attribute that specifies the user or team who owns the record. Record ownership affects the security of the record, as some privileges and access levels are based on the ownership of the record.
  • Sharing: Sharing is the process of granting access to a specific record or resource to a specific user or team. Sharing allows you to override the security roles and provide additional access to the record or resource, without changing the ownership or the access level. Sharing can be done manually by users who have the share privilege, or automatically by workflows or business rules.
  • Hierarchy security: Hierarchy security is a feature that allows you to use the manager-subordinate relationship or the position hierarchy to grant access to data or resources. Hierarchy security allows you to extend the access level of the security roles to include the records or resources that are owned by the subordinates or the positions in the hierarchy. Hierarchy security can be enabled or disabled by the system administrator.

How to use security roles in Power Platform Dataverse?

To use security roles in Power Platform Dataverse, you need to do the following steps:

  1. Define your security requirements and scenarios. You need to identify the types of users and teams that you have in your organization, and the types of data and resources that they need to access and interact with. You also need to consider the business units, the record ownership, the sharing, and the hierarchy security that you want to use in your security model.
  2. Create or modify security roles. You can use the predefined security roles that are available in Power Platform Dataverse, or you can create your own custom security roles. You can use the security role designer tool to add or remove privileges and access levels for each security role. You can also copy or delete security roles as needed.
  3. Assign security roles to users, teams, or app users. You can use the user, team, or app user management tools to assign one or more security roles to each user, team, or app user. You can also change or remove security roles as needed.
  4. Test and monitor your security roles. You can use the user interface or the web API to test and verify the security roles that you have assigned. You can also use the Power Platform admin center or the Power Platform Center of Excellence (CoE) kit to monitor and audit the security roles and the usage of data and resources in Power Platform Dataverse.

Conclusion

Security roles are groups of privileges that control access to data and resources in Power Platform Dataverse. Security roles work with other security concepts, such as business units, record ownership, sharing, and hierarchy security, to determine the effective security that users have. Security roles can be created, modified, assigned, and monitored using various tools and resources in Power Platform Dataverse. To learn more about security roles and other security concepts in Power Platform Dataverse, you can check out these resources:

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