This guide describes how to install StrongDM on your Linux machine. In a Linux environment, StrongDM consists of a command-line interface (CLI). You may be able to run some CLI commands without a complete installation. If you wish to use StrongDM in this way, check the Run Without Installation section.
If you intend to use StrongDM with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) please see the WSL page for more information.
Use the following steps to install the StrongDM CLI on your Linux machine. The StrongDM Desktop application is not currently available for Linux.
Open the invitation email you received for your StrongDM account.
Click the link included in the email to set your password.
Log in to StrongDM and go to the Download & Install page in the Admin UI.
Under Linux, click Download StrongDM for Linux to start the download immediately, or click Show download options to select the appropriate option for your architecture. StrongDM for Linux is available for x86-64, x86-64 (Static), and ARM64 architectures.
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:
The checksum should match the value in the SHA256 Checksum section of the Admin UI Download & Install page.
Unzip the file:
unzip sdmcli_<VERSION_NUMBER>_linux_amd64.zip
Follow instructions provided by the install command, which must be executed using sudo:
sudo ./sdm install
After executing sdm install, you can find StrongDM in /opt/strongdm and a symlink to the binary in /usr/local/bin. Next, ensure that the sdm binary is usable from the CLI:
sdm --version
Go to the CLI Reference to learn how to connect to different resources, such as datasources and servers.
Use the following steps to install the StrongDM CLI on your Linux machine. The StrongDM Desktop application is not currently available for Linux.
Open the invitation email you received for your StrongDM account.
Click the link included in the email to set your password.
Log in to StrongDM and go to the Download & Install page in the Admin UI.
Under Linux, click Download StrongDM for Linux to start the download immediately, or click Show download options to select the appropriate option for your architecture. StrongDM for Linux is available for x86-64, x86-64 (Static), and ARM64 architectures.
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:
The checksum should match the value in the SHA256 Checksum section of the Admin UI Download & Install page.
Unzip the file:
unzip sdmcli_<VERSION_NUMBER>_linux_amd64.zip
Follow instructions provided by the install command, which must be executed using sudo:
sudo ./sdm install --domain uk.strongdm.com
After executing sdm install, you can find StrongDM in /opt/strongdm and a symlink to the binary in /usr/local/bin. Next, ensure that the sdm binary is usable from the CLI:
sdm --version
Go to the CLI Reference to learn how to connect to different resources, such as datasources and servers.
Use the following steps to install the StrongDM CLI on your Linux machine. The StrongDM Desktop application is not currently available for Linux.
Open the invitation email you received for your StrongDM account.
Click the link included in the email to set your password.
Log in to StrongDM and go to the Download & Install page in the Admin UI.
Under Linux, click Download StrongDM for Linux to start the download immediately, or click Show download options to select the appropriate option for your architecture. StrongDM for Linux is available for x86-64, x86-64 (Static), and ARM64 architectures.
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:
The checksum should match the value in the SHA256 Checksum section of the Admin UI Download & Install page.
Unzip the file:
unzip sdmcli_<VERSION_NUMBER>_linux_amd64.zip
Follow instructions provided by the install command, which must be executed using sudo:
sudo ./sdm install --domain eu.strongdm.com
After executing sdm install, you can find StrongDM in /opt/strongdm and a symlink to the binary in /usr/local/bin. Next, ensure that the sdm binary is usable from the CLI:
sdm --version
Go to the CLI Reference to learn how to connect to different resources, such as datasources and servers.
If you have any issues during installation, consider the following:
The installer must be run by a user that exists in the /etc/passwd file. Any users remotely authenticated, such as with LDAP or an SSO service, may fail to complete the installation.
If you are installing with Fedora Linux, use the -E flag to preserve the user environment. This is necessary due to the way Fedora handles sudo.
If you are attempting to set up a relay rather than a client, see Relays.
Once you have downloaded and unzipped StrongDM, you can run certain commands without completing a full installation.
For instance, to run sdm audit or sdm admin commands, you can provide an admin token in the SDM_ADMIN_TOKEN environment variable. However, connecting to datasources or servers requires a running SDM daemon, so we suggest running the full installation: