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.

   Do not run SDM directly from the DMG file. This results in degraded functionality.

   

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={APP_DOMAIN} for the current user.
# After installation, launch SDM.app and you should see {APP_DOMAIN} in the output
# of "ps xeww | grep sdm.darwin | grep {APP_DOMAIN}"

# 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/bash</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>launchctl setenv SDM_DOMAIN {APP_DOMAIN}; killall -9 SDM sdm.darwin</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."

That’s it! You’ve installed StrongDM. Go ahead and try a connection!