Create a Flow with Service account

[Vidanaw]

Hi All,

I m building a Flow as follows.

1. Flow triggers when an Item is added to the SharePoint online list.
2. Flow will send approval to the selected manager in the SP list.
3. Flow will send an email notification to the requester with the approval status.
4. Update the SP list item with approver approval status.

Can someone please tell me what are the best practice of creating this Flow based on the following areas. 

1. Flow ownership is it better to create MS FLow with a service account ( normal O365 user account with a generic name)

2. Give Service account contributor permission to the SP list.

3. If I m sending email using a shared mailbox, give send as permission to the service account.

4. If the organization has 90 days password expiry policy, how that will affects on this service account.

Thanks.

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

1) using a service account to won Flows is a common best practice in large enterprises because it protects you from issues if the original Maker leaves the company.  But it will cost you an additional license since the service account needs full licensing.

2) In general yes, the service account will need permissions on the list just like a user.  Depending on the trigger there is a way to add the list itself as a RunOnly user.  But that only works for specific triggers.

3) It depends on the email action you use.  Many Flow actions that send email, like the Approval actions, send the email from a Microsoft mailbox and that can't be changed.  For the actions where you can specify the From then yes the account running the Flow must have Send As permissions to the mailbox.

4) I would normally recommend setting up the service account as exempt from the 90 day password change policy. Otherwise someone will need to login as that account every 90 days and change the password. But remember the Flow runs connections using an OAUTH connection. That isn't dependent on the account password until it needs to be renewed.

[Vidanaw]

Thank you  Pstork1.

[Nitak]

Hi @Pstork1 ,

Do you have any recommendations on number of service accounts.

I am trying to build close to 400 flows uses commonly Sharepoint,outlook and Approval connectors.

[Pstork1]

Unless you start running into capacity issues with the number of API calls you are making, you can normally do it with just one account.  I would start there and add a second account if you have to scale up your capacity.

[LAHansen]

So as to the number of service accounts.  Isn't it a security issue to have a single account having access to many different databases, SharePoint lists, etc.?  If for some reason that one account is hacked/used by someone they have access to a lot of data.  On the other hand as mentioned on this thread, creating a service account for each and ever application created is racking up the number of licenses used.   There ought to be some middle ground.

[Pstork1]

Yes, it would be a concern.  But since its a service account you would limit the number of people who have access to it and set a very difficult password for it (like a 12-16 character nonsense string).  Then audit access to it and look for potential issues.  IF it gets hacked its a bigger issue, but you can put much more stringent controls and auditing on it than you generally would a normal account.  Its a concern, but not an insurmountable risk.

[Anonymous]

@Pstork1 @Vidanaw 

I have the same requirements as @Vidanaw where a user can add a new record in a Sharepoint list and then manually triggers a flow using a button on the form. The flow sends an email, starts an approval process, then creates a new record in a different list which the initiating user does not have permissions to do so, so the flow fails on 'Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))'.

I am new to power automate so are still learning some of the basics.

As i created the flow, the connections are using my office365 account so all works ok for me. The flow is also a 'team flow' which i assume lets anyone who has access to the Sharepoint list use the flow, but with their account, not mine, which is why the flow fails when it tries to update the sharepoint list.

I've read creating a service account should resolve my issue where users do not have sharepoint permissions for the list that the flow updates. I should give the service account the correct permissions in sharepoint to update the list.

The thing i don't fully understand, is how i get the flow to run every time using the service account and not the account of the person who initiates the flow? Any advice to help me understand how to setup would be much appreciated. thanks.

[Pstork1]

The problem is that flows which are triggered using a button run in the context of the person who presses the button, not the original maker.  Flows that are triggered automatically by an event in the list will run in the context of the maker.  That's why you are getting the access denied error when someone else runs the flow. Creating a flow using a service account won't change that.

[Anonymous]

@Pstork1 thanks for the quick reply, any suggestions on how i can resolve my issue? without given all end users edit access to the sharepoint list?

[Pstork1]

The easiest way to fix it is to change the trigger.  If the flow is kicked off automatically when the record is created or modified then it will run in the context of the maker.  Then only the maker, or a service account if you use that to make the flow, needs access to the second SharePoint list.  There really is no way to do it if the user's start the flow themselves.

[Vidanaw]

@Anonymous like @Pstork1 mentioned you have to change the trigger which you can easily done based on the Form submission. 

[Anonymous]

@Vidanaw @Pstork1 thanks for your feedback. I've split my flow into 2, the first being triggered from the pushbutton and the second is triggered on new / change of record. All seems to work ok now. thanks.

[SA3]

what is the recommendation around MFA for these service accounts? 

[Pstork1]

Since security is actually based on OAuth I don't think it really matters.  The only point where MFA will enter into it is when you log in as the Service Account to edit the flow.

[ms4894]

We've set a conditional access policy requiring MFA after 24h, so we're experiencing problems with users having to login to continue their Flows and Power BI data refreshes. Creating a service account for these apps with MFA would result in the same problem, as the token keeps expiring. Is there any other way to keep a service account with MFA, or make it more secure in another way?

[Anonymous]

would PowerAutomate Service Account Password rotation break the work flows if so how can we address the issue and have password rotation in place? Also can Service Account be replaced by Managed Identities?

[Pstork1]

Every time your service account resets its password you will need to re-authenticate each connection using that account.  I have not found a way to do that programmatically.  Nor do I think you can use managed Identities at this point to authenticate connections.

[Anonymous]

Hoping you can have a look at my post here:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Power-Automate/Service-Accounts-and-Dashboard-Alerts/m-p...

Service Accounts and Dashboard Alerts

Thx