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BrianHFASPS
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License to create a portal?

I am trying to understand what licensing I need to create a portal first of all and then to be able to share the portal with either internal or external (public) users. I am able to create canvas apps but when I try to make a portal I get this message?

Portal Database.png

In looking at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/powerapps-flow-licensing-faq I think I should be able to create a portal. Also is there no option for unauthenticated use of portal? I work at a school and would like to build a form to link to other apps for parents. They can't authenticate.

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Pstork1
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Most Valuable Professional

What license do you have?  It looks like your environment does not have a CDS database, which is a requirement for creating a Portal.  But If the database exists in your environment then creating a Portal doesn't require any specific licensing, although there is an optional setting that can reserve creation for Admin users only.  It appears your default environment doesn't have a database and you don't have permission to create a new environment.  Contact your Powerapps administrators (probably your Office 365 global admins to get a CDS database created.)

 

Licensing comes in when you want to use the portal. To consume a portal as an internal user you need either a per App, per User, or Dynamics 365 PowerApps license.  For external users there is a Per Login license that provides capacity for external users.  Anonymous access licensing is also based on capacity, but that is based on page views, not logins.  Licensing is covered in the Portals section of this FAQ.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/powerapps-flow-licensing-faq#portals



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I am the global admin so that isn't an issue. Maybe I am misunderstanding what is being referenced here as "database" vs what I thought was a connection? I have an Azure SQL DB as a connection that I use for all my other apps. Can I use that for portals? I have a Office 365 PowerApps license. I now see the Add-on section and anonymous page views. I need like 200 a month not 100,000 but oh well.

Pstork1
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

The database being referred to is the Common Data Services database (CDS).  You can't use Azure SQL for the portal itself, although you should be able to leverage connections to that for the apps on the portal.  

 

Although you can make a Portal with the Office 365 "seeded" license internal users will need either a perApp or perUser license to be able to use the portal.



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Wait the portal can't talk to Azure SQL it has to use some other CDS database? That seems odd. Is there a free CDS database? It also says I need an environment, don't I have one already?

Pstork1
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

I didn't say that.  The infrastructure for the portal is built using CDS, so it requires CDS.  The pages and the apps can use a variety of data sources.  But to build a portal you have to have CDS.  There is no free version of CDS.  The reason its offering to let you build another environment is that when you provision an environment you get a choice of whether to provision CDS or not.  Your current environment was built without CDS, so its either add CDS to that environment or build a new one that has CDS.



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Ok, so I can make a portal for free with my existing license except I can't create a portal without CDS. I can't create CDS though with my license since they are all premium. That means I can't really create a portal with my existing license? I just want to understand what a portal can and can't do but I can't even begin without buying CDS (which I don't want) to begin with? How can I add CDS to my existing environment? I don't want two environments if I don't have to.

 

I just wanted to see if I could use portals to make a web front end for anonymous users to enter data into my existing Apps / SQL built out stuff. Is it not for that?

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