macOS Installation Guide

Overview #

This guide provides information to 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 install the StrongDM Desktop application and CLI on macOS. To bypass the desktop application, you can download the CLI independently.

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. Click Download StrongDM for macOS to get the desktop app and CLI. Once the download is successful, the file name appears as SDM-<VERSION_NUMBER>.dmg. When you click to show all download options in the Admin UI, you can install just the StrongDM CLI for your architecture if you prefer.

5. Optionally, check that the downloaded binary is legitimate and verify the checksum:

   $ sha256sum SDM-15.57.0.dmg
   9436778e0c922f621e0456b2694e0ad7dd50de8501632ee784b8add38bac5c5a SDM-15.57.0.dmg
   

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

   

6. To continue with the installation, double click the downloaded DMG file.

7. 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.

   

Launch StrongDM #

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

1. To launch StrongDM Desktop, 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 created during the email invitation step when you installed StrongDM Desktop. You may also be redirected to your single sign-on (SSO) provider.

4. After logging in, a list of resources you have permission to access appears in StrongDM Desktop.

   

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.

   If you click a website resource, it launches in your default browser. To disconnect from any resource, click the named instance in the desktop app and the green connection icon disappears. Any existing connections from your local machine to the resource are immediately disabled.

Set up the StrongDM CLI #

To set up the CLI that is included with the StrongDM Desktop application, 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 StrongDM menu and click 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. Verify that the CLI is working properly:

   $ 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)
   

Download the StrongDM CLI #

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 web application or Admin UI.

4. Click Download StrongDM for macOS. When you click to show all download options, go to the Download the StrongDM CLI section.

5. Download the StrongDM CLI for your architecture. The files are download 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.

If any errors occur or if the installation fails in any way, please contact support@strongdm.com for assistance.