macOS Installation Guide

Last modified on October 31, 2024

Overview

This guide provides information to download and install StrongDM on macOS. The primary download package includes the StrongDM Desktop application and a command-line interface (CLI). You can optionally download the CLI independently from the Admin UI.

Download StrongDM

Use the following steps to download the desktop app and CLI on macOS. To bypass the desktop app, you can download the CLI independently.

  1. Open the invitation email you received for your StrongDM account and follow the directions to set up your account.

  2. Log in to StrongDM and go to the Download & Install page in the Admin UI.

    Example of Admin UI Download & Install Page
    Example of Admin UI Download & Install Page

  3. Under macOS, click Download StrongDM for macOS to download the desktop app and CLI immediately, or click Show download options for other options.

    • PKG: This universal installer version includes the desktop app and CLI together and provides easy prompts that guide you through the installation process. If used with admin privilege, the PKG installer installs StrongDM and the StrongDM Virtual Network Adapter (which enables you to access Virtual Networking Mode resources that may be available to you). If used without admin privilege, the PKG installer installs StrongDM but not the adapter. StrongDM is installed in the home directory (/Users/<USERNAME>/Applications).
    • DMG: This universal full version includes the desktop app and CLI together and is installed manually. The DMG version does not install the StrongDM Virtual Network Adapter. Choose DMG if you want to install the desktop app without the adapter.
    • CLI: The StrongDM CLI option includes only the CLI (not the desktop app) for x86-64 or ARM64 architectures. Download and install the CLI only if you don’t want to install the desktop app.

    Once the download is successful, the file name appears as SDM-<VERSION_NUMBER>.dmg or SDM-<VERSION_NUMBER>.universal.pkg, depending on the selected kind.

  4. Optionally check that the downloaded binary is legitimate and verify the checksum, as in the following example:

    $ sha256sum SDM-21.54.0.dmg
9436778e0c922f621e0456b2694e0ad7dd50de8501632ee784b8add38bac5c5a SDM-21.54.0.dmg

    The checksum should match the value in the SHA256 Checksum section of the Admin UI.

    Example of StrongDM SHA256 Checksums on the Admin UI Download & Install Page
    Example of StrongDM SHA256 Checksums on the Admin UI Download & Install Page

Install StrongDM

PKG

To install StrongDM with the installer version (PKG), follow these steps.

  1. Double-click the downloaded PKG file (SDM-<VERSION_NUMBER>.universal.pkg). A dialog opens with guided prompts.
  2. On the introduction screen, read the information given and click Continue.
  3. Click Install.
  4. After installation is complete, view the success message and click Close.

To install StrongDM as an admin, use the built-in command-line program called installer. Use sudo and enter the PKG file as an argument (using the correct PKG file name), as in the following example:

sudo installer -pkg SDM-21.58.0.universal.pkg -target /

DMG

To install StrongDM with the DMG, follow these steps.

  1. Double-click the downloaded DMG file (SDM-<VERSION_NUMBER>.dmg).

  2. Drag the SDM app to the Applications folder using the provided shortcut. If you do not have admin rights on your computer, you can copy the SDM app to the Applications folder in your home directory or the desktop, where it runs and updates normally without requiring admin privileges.

    StrongDM Installation Shortcut
    StrongDM Installation Shortcut

PKG

To install StrongDM with the installer version (PKG), follow these steps.

  1. Double-click the downloaded PKG file (SDM-<VERSION_NUMBER>.universal.pkg). A dialog opens with guided prompts.
  2. On the introduction screen, read the information given and click Continue.
  3. Click Install.
  4. After installation is complete, view the success message and click Close.

To install StrongDM as an admin, use the built-in command-line program called installer. Use sudo and enter the PKG file as an argument (using the correct PKG file name), as in the following example:

sudo installer -pkg SDM-21.58.0.universal.pkg -target /

DMG

To install StrongDM with the DMG, follow these steps.

  1. Double-click the downloaded DMG file (SDM-<VERSION_NUMBER>.dmg).

  2. Drag the SDM app to the Applications folder using the provided shortcut. If you do not have admin rights on your computer, you can copy the SDM app to the Applications folder in your home directory or the desktop, where it runs and updates normally without requiring admin privileges.

    StrongDM Installation Shortcut
    StrongDM Installation Shortcut

Set SDM_DOMAIN on startup

As a last installation step, you need to set the SDM_DOMAIN environment variable to tell your desktop app where to find your StrongDM service. This can be done automatically each time your computer is started via a shell script. Save the following script as a shell script and run it from a terminal to create the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.strongdm.setenv.plist file and load it on startup.

#!/bin/bash
# Installs launch agent that sets SDM_DOMAIN=uk.strongdm.com for the current user.
# User should run this and then reboot.
# To verify, launch SDM.app and you should see uk.strongdm.com in the output
# of "ps xeww | grep sdm.darwin | grep uk.strongdm.com"

# Define the plist file path
PLIST_FILE="$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/com.strongdm.setenv.plist"

# Create the plist file with the required content
tee $PLIST_FILE <<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.strongdm.setenv</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/launchctl</string>
        <string>setenv</string>
        <string>SDM_DOMAIN</string>
        <string>uk.strongdm.com</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>
EOF

# Set the correct ownership and permissions
chmod 644 $PLIST_FILE

# Load the plist file with launchctl
launchctl load $PLIST_FILE

echo "LaunchAgent installed and loaded successfully.  Reboot to verify."

PKG

To install StrongDM with the installer version (PKG), follow these steps.

  1. Double-click the downloaded PKG file (SDM-<VERSION_NUMBER>.universal.pkg). A dialog opens with guided prompts.
  2. On the introduction screen, read the information given and click Continue.
  3. Click Install.
  4. After installation is complete, view the success message and click Close.

To install StrongDM as an admin, use the built-in command-line program called installer. Use sudo and enter the PKG file as an argument (using the correct PKG file name), as in the following example:

sudo installer -pkg SDM-21.58.0.universal.pkg -target /

DMG

To install StrongDM with the DMG, follow these steps.

  1. Double-click the downloaded DMG file (SDM-<VERSION_NUMBER>.dmg).

  2. Drag the SDM app to the Applications folder using the provided shortcut. If you do not have admin rights on your computer, you can copy the SDM app to the Applications folder in your home directory or the desktop, where it runs and updates normally without requiring admin privileges.

    StrongDM Installation Shortcut
    StrongDM Installation Shortcut

Set SDM_DOMAIN on startup

As a last installation step, you need to set the SDM_DOMAIN environment variable to tell your desktop app where to find your StrongDM service. This can be done automatically each time your computer is started via a shell script. Save the following script as a shell script and run it from a terminal to create the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.strongdm.setenv.plist file and load it on startup.

#!/bin/bash
# Installs launch agent that sets SDM_DOMAIN=eu.strongdm.com for the current user.
# User should run this and then reboot.
# To verify, launch SDM.app and you should see eu.strongdm.com in the output
# of "ps xeww | grep sdm.darwin | grep eu.strongdm.com"

# Define the plist file path
PLIST_FILE="$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/com.strongdm.setenv.plist"

# Create the plist file with the required content
tee $PLIST_FILE <<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.strongdm.setenv</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/launchctl</string>
        <string>setenv</string>
        <string>SDM_DOMAIN</string>
        <string>eu.strongdm.com</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>
EOF

# Set the correct ownership and permissions
chmod 644 $PLIST_FILE

# Load the plist file with launchctl
launchctl load $PLIST_FILE

echo "LaunchAgent installed and loaded successfully.  Reboot to verify."

Launch StrongDM

Use these steps to launch the desktop app on macOS. When connected to resources via the desktop app, all resource access gets routed through StrongDM.

  1. To launch the desktop app, double-click the SDM icon in your list of applications.

  2. The sdm icon appears in the menu bar. Click this icon to log in.

  3. Enter the email and password for your StrongDM account. If your company uses single sign-on (SSO), you may also be redirected to your SSO provider.

  4. After logging in, go to the Resource Center to view a list of resources you have permission to access.

    Example Resource Center
    Example Resource Center

  5. Click one of these resources to enable a connection and gain access. A green lightning bolt icon appears next to the connected resource.

  6. You can now connect to the resource on your machine using your preferred tool. When prompted for connection information, you can typically use localhost for the hostname/IP, leave the username and password blank, and specify the port listed next to the resource in StrongDM Desktop. If the connection fails using these defaults, check the Connect to Resources section for more information.

Set up the StrongDM CLI

To set up the CLI that is included with the desktop app, you can use the following steps.

  1. After installing the SDM application, click the sdm icon in the menu bar. Make sure you are logged in by checking that the SDM application is online and your available resources display.

  2. Open the Actions menu and select Install sdm in PATH.

    You can also open a terminal and type sudo ln -s /Applications/SDM.app/Contents/Resources/sdm.darwin /usr/local/bin/sdm. Either of these options adds the sdm command line application to your PATH.

  3. Verify that the CLI is working properly by running sdm --version, which should return a version number similar to the following

$ sdm --version
sdm version 35.3.0 (99a5d1a71d4eccaf171449e33bc0826132b05165 #503)

If instead you see something like -bash: sdm: command not found, it may mean that the path /usr/local/bin/ is not included in your system search path. Edit the shell configuration file your system is using. For macOS, that is sometimes .bash_profile, but since macOS Catalina, zsh is the default shell. Open the shell configuration file and append export PATH=/usr/local/bin/:$PATH to it. Then run:

$ source ~/.zshrc
$ sdm --version
sdm version 35.3.0 (99a5d1a71d4eccaf171449e33bc0826132b05165 #503)

You may also download the package directly. In this example, we will use the curl method to get the AMD64 binary (for an x86-64 architecture) and complete the download. Open a terminal and download the Linux binary:

curl -J -O -L https://app.strongdm.com/releases/cli/linux

For an ARM-based architecture, you must use the Release endpoint with parameters to download an ARM64 binary:

curl -s 'https://app.strongdm.com/release?software=sdm-cli&os=linux&arch=arm64'

To set up the CLI that is included with the desktop app, you can use the following steps.

  1. After installing the SDM application, click the sdm icon in the menu bar. Make sure you are logged in by checking that the SDM application is online and your available resources display.

  2. Open the Actions menu and select Install sdm in PATH.

    You can also open a terminal and type sudo ln -s /Applications/SDM.app/Contents/Resources/sdm.darwin /usr/local/bin/sdm. Either of these options adds the sdm command line application to your PATH.

  3. Set the SDM_DOMAIN environment variable to tell your CLI where to find your StrongDM service. Edit your ~/.zshrc file and add export SDM_DOMAIN=uk.strongdm.com at the end, then source the file with source ~/.zshrc. This sets the environment variable for this session.

  4. Verify that the CLI is working properly by running sdm --version, which should return a version number similar to the following

$ sdm --version
sdm version 35.3.0 (99a5d1a71d4eccaf171449e33bc0826132b05165 #503)

If instead you see something like -bash: sdm: command not found, it may mean that the path /usr/local/bin/ is not included in your system search path. Edit the shell configuration file your system is using. For macOS, that is sometimes .bash_profile, but since macOS Catalina, zsh is the default shell. Open the shell configuration file and append export PATH=/usr/local/bin/:$PATH to it. Then run:

$ source ~/.zshrc
$ sdm --version
sdm version 35.3.0 (99a5d1a71d4eccaf171449e33bc0826132b05165 #503)

You may also download the package directly. In this example, we will use the curl method to get the AMD64 binary (for an x86-64 architecture) and complete the download. Open a terminal and download the Linux binary:

curl -J -O -L https://app.uk.strongdm.com/releases/cli/linux

For an ARM-based architecture, you must use the Release endpoint with parameters to download an ARM64 binary:

curl -s 'https://app.uk.strongdm.com/release?software=sdm-cli&os=linux&arch=arm64'

To set up the CLI that is included with the desktop app, you can use the following steps.

  1. After installing the SDM application, click the sdm icon in the menu bar. Make sure you are logged in by checking that the SDM application is online and your available resources display.

  2. Open the Actions menu and select Install sdm in PATH.

    You can also open a terminal and type sudo ln -s /Applications/SDM.app/Contents/Resources/sdm.darwin /usr/local/bin/sdm. Either of these options adds the sdm command line application to your PATH.

  3. Set the SDM_DOMAIN environment variable to tell your CLI where to find your StrongDM service. Edit your ~/.zshrc file and add export SDM_DOMAIN=eu.strongdm.com at the end, then source the file with source ~/.zshrc. This sets the environment variable for this session.

  4. Verify that the CLI is working properly by running sdm --version, which should return a version number similar to the following

$ sdm --version
sdm version 35.3.0 (99a5d1a71d4eccaf171449e33bc0826132b05165 #503)

If instead you see something like -bash: sdm: command not found, it may mean that the path /usr/local/bin/ is not included in your system search path. Edit the shell configuration file your system is using. For macOS, that is sometimes .bash_profile, but since macOS Catalina, zsh is the default shell. Open the shell configuration file and append export PATH=/usr/local/bin/:$PATH to it. Then run:

$ source ~/.zshrc
$ sdm --version
sdm version 35.3.0 (99a5d1a71d4eccaf171449e33bc0826132b05165 #503)

You may also download the package directly. In this example, we will use the curl method to get the AMD64 binary (for an x86-64 architecture) and complete the download. Open a terminal and download the Linux binary:

curl -J -O -L https://app.eu.strongdm.com/releases/cli/linux

For an ARM-based architecture, you must use the Release endpoint with parameters to download an ARM64 binary:

curl -s 'https://app.eu.strongdm.com/release?software=sdm-cli&os=linux&arch=arm64'

Download the StrongDM CLI Only

On macOS, you can bypass the desktop application and download the CLI independently. Use the following steps to install the CLI only.

  1. Open the invitation email you received for your StrongDM account.

  2. Click the link included in the email to set your password.

  3. Log in to StrongDM and go to the Download & Install page in the Admin UI.

  4. Under macOS, click Show download options.

  5. From the Download the StrongDM CLI section, download the StrongDM CLI for your architecture. The files are downloaded to a zipped folder on your computer. This depends on your architecture, but the folder name appears as sdmcli_<VERSION_NUMBER>_darwin_amd64.zip.

  6. Unzip the file:

    unzip sdmcli_<VERSION-NUMBER>_darwin_amd64.zip

  7. Move the unzipped file to your usr/local/bin/ directory. We suggest this location since it is usually part of the PATH variable, ensuring you can run sdm commands from any folder in the terminal.

  8. To connect to resources with the standalone binary, you must run a listener manually. Use sdm listen to run the listener in the background.

For detailed information on how to use the desktop app and CLI, please see the documentation: