Linux Installation Guide

Last modified on March 28, 2025

Overview

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.

Install StrongDM

Use the following steps to install the StrongDM CLI on your Linux machine. The StrongDM Desktop application is not currently available for Linux.

  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 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. You2 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'

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

    $ sha256sum sdmcli_40.87.0_linux_amd64.zip
3c0bd7ede828b93b3dfbd243330d4f7ee531c95940adc108bd3e53680dc81fb3 sdmcli_40.87.0_linux_amd64.zip

    The checksum should match the value in the SHA256 Checksum section of the Admin UI Download & Install page.

  6. Unzip the file:

    unzip sdmcli_<VERSION_NUMBER>_linux_amd64.zip

  7. Follow instructions provided by the install command, which must be executed using sudo:

    sudo ./sdm install

  8. 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

  9. 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.

  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 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:

    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'

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

    $ sha256sum sdmcli_40.87.0_linux_amd64.zip
3c0bd7ede828b93b3dfbd243330d4f7ee531c95940adc108bd3e53680dc81fb3 sdmcli_40.87.0_linux_amd64.zip

    The checksum should match the value in the SHA256 Checksum section of the Admin UI Download & Install page.

  6. Unzip the file:

    unzip sdmcli_<VERSION_NUMBER>_linux_amd64.zip

  7. Follow instructions provided by the install command, which must be executed using sudo:

    sudo ./sdm install --app-domain app.uk.strongdm.com

  8. 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

  9. Set the environment variable SDM_APP_DOMAIN in the user shell (for example, in ~/.bashrc for the bash shell):

    echo 'export SDM_APP_DOMAIN=app.uk.strongdm.com' >>~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

  10. 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.

  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 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:

    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'

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

    $ sha256sum sdmcli_40.87.0_linux_amd64.zip
3c0bd7ede828b93b3dfbd243330d4f7ee531c95940adc108bd3e53680dc81fb3 sdmcli_40.87.0_linux_amd64.zip

    The checksum should match the value in the SHA256 Checksum section of the Admin UI Download & Install page.

  6. Unzip the file:

    unzip sdmcli_<VERSION_NUMBER>_linux_amd64.zip

  7. Follow instructions provided by the install command, which must be executed using sudo:

    sudo ./sdm install --app-domain app.eu.strongdm.com

  8. 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

  9. Set the environment variable SDM_APP_DOMAIN in the user shell (for example, in ~/.bashrc for the bash shell):

    echo 'export SDM_APP_DOMAIN=app.eu.strongdm.com' >>~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

  10. Go to the CLI Reference to learn how to connect to different resources, such as datasources and servers.

Troubleshooting installation

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.

Run Without Installation

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:

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

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

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

The output is similar to:

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   128  100   128    0     0    384      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--   384
100 6733k  100 6733k    0     0  2896k      0  0:00:02  0:00:02 --:--:-- 3435k
curl: Saved to filename 'sdmcli_40.87.0_linux_amd64.zip'
$ unzip sdmcli_40.87.0_linux_amd64.zip
Archive:  sdmcli_40.87.0_linux_amd64.zip
  inflating: sdm
$ export SDM_ADMIN_TOKEN=<token here>
$ ./sdm audit users
User ID,Email,First Name,Last Name,Role ID,StrongDM Permission,Role Name
1111,user1@organization.com,User,One,0,user,,{},[],0
2222,user2@organization.com,User,Two,,10011,admin,Engineers,{},[],0
3333,user3@organization.com,User,Three,10011,admin,Engineers,{},[],0

For detailed information on how to use the CLI, please see the CLI Reference documentation.