Linux Installation Guide
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.
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:
For an ARM-based architecture, you must use the Release endpoint with parameters to download an ARM64 binary:
Optionally, check that the downloaded binary is legitimate and verify the checksum:
The checksum should match the value in the SHA256 Checksum section of the Admin UI Download & Install page.
Unzip the file:
Follow instructions provided by the install command, which must be executed using
sudo:After executing
sdm install, you can find StrongDM in/opt/strongdmand a symlink to the binary in/usr/local/bin. Next, ensure that the sdm binary is usable from the CLI:Go to the CLI Reference to learn how to connect to different resources, such as datasources and servers.
Follow instructions in the tab for the region of your organization's StrongDM control plane, not your own location. The default control plane region is US.
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:
For an ARM-based architecture, you must use the Release endpoint with parameters to download an ARM64 binary:
Optionally, check that the downloaded binary is legitimate and verify the checksum:
The checksum should match the value in the SHA256 Checksum section of the Admin UI Download & Install page.
Unzip the file:
Follow instructions provided by the install command, which must be executed using
sudo:After executing
sdm install, you can find StrongDM in/opt/strongdmand a symlink to the binary in/usr/local/bin. Next, ensure that the sdm binary is usable from the CLI:Go to the CLI Reference to learn how to connect to different resources, such as datasources and servers.
Follow instructions in the tab for the region of your organization's StrongDM control plane, not your own location. The default control plane region is US.
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:
For an ARM-based architecture, you must use the Release endpoint with parameters to download an ARM64 binary:
Optionally, check that the downloaded binary is legitimate and verify the checksum:
The checksum should match the value in the SHA256 Checksum section of the Admin UI Download & Install page.
Unzip the file:
Follow instructions provided by the install command, which must be executed using
sudo:After executing
sdm install, you can find StrongDM in/opt/strongdmand a symlink to the binary in/usr/local/bin. Next, ensure that the sdm binary is usable from the CLI: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/passwdfile. 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
-Eflag to preserve the user environment. This is necessary due to the way Fedora handlessudo.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:
Follow instructions in the tab for the region of your organization's StrongDM control plane, not your own location. The default control plane region is US.
Follow instructions in the tab for the region of your organization's StrongDM control plane, not your own location. The default control plane region is US.
The output is similar to:
Recommended Reading
For detailed information on how to use the CLI, please see the CLI Reference documentation.
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