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Installing the Universal Sensor

The Universal Sensor is installed using a single command per operating system. The command is generated for your tenant by the SenseOn platform and includes your installer key. Once executed, the installer downloads and installs the latest published version of the Universal Sensor automatically.

💡 Where to find your install command: Log in to SenseOn and navigate to Settings > Universal Sensor. The page displays a ready-to-copy command for each supported operating system, pre-populated with your tenant's installer key.

What the Install Command Does

The command performs the following steps on the endpoint:

  1. Downloads the install script (install.sh or install.ps1) from your tenant's SenseOn domain.
  2. Validates that the SENSEON_INSTALLER_KEY environment variable is present.
  3. Determines the correct package for the host's operating system and architecture.
  4. Downloads and installs the latest published version of the Universal Sensor.
  5. Starts the SenseOn Seed Service and registers the host in Digital Estate > Devices.

The installer is idempotent — running it again on an already-installed host re-registers the agent without uninstalling first.

💡 Version management: The install command always installs the latest published Universal Sensor version. To pin or change which version a device runs after installation, use Settings > Device Configuration.

Ubuntu / Debian

Requires: Ubuntu 18.04 or later, or Debian-based distribution with apt.

Copy the command from Settings > Universal Sensor and run it on the target host. The command has the following structure:

curl -fsSL https://<your-tenant>.senseon.io/install.sh \
  | sudo SENSEON_INSTALLER_KEY="<your-installer-key>" bash

The platform displays a SHA-256 checksum next to the command. If your security policy requires checksum verification before executing remote scripts, download the script first, verify the checksum, then run it:

curl -fsSL https://<your-tenant>.senseon.io/install.sh -o install.sh
sha256sum install.sh   # compare against the value shown in Settings > Universal Sensor
sudo SENSEON_INSTALLER_KEY="<your-installer-key>" bash install.sh

Red Hat / CentOS

Requires: CentOS 7 or later, RHEL 7 or later, or another RPM-based distribution.

The command is identical to the Ubuntu / Debian command — install.sh detects the package manager and uses rpm automatically:

curl -fsSL https://<your-tenant>.senseon.io/install.sh \
  | sudo SENSEON_INSTALLER_KEY="<your-installer-key>" bash

The platform displays a SHA-256 checksum next to the command. If your security policy requires checksum verification before executing remote scripts, download the script first, verify the checksum, then run it:

curl -fsSL https://<your-tenant>.senseon.io/install.sh -o install.sh
sha256sum install.sh   # compare against the value shown in Settings > Universal Sensor
sudo SENSEON_INSTALLER_KEY="<your-installer-key>" bash install.sh

macOS

Requires: macOS Catalina (10.15) or later. Apple Silicon (M1 or later) is supported.

curl -fsSL https://<your-tenant>.senseon.io/install.sh \
  | sudo SENSEON_INSTALLER_KEY="<your-installer-key>" bash

The platform displays a SHA-256 checksum next to the command. If your security policy requires checksum verification before executing remote scripts, download the script first, verify the checksum, then run it:

curl -fsSL https://<your-tenant>.senseon.io/install.sh -o install.sh
shasum -a 256 install.sh   # compare against the value shown in Settings > Universal Sensor
sudo SENSEON_INSTALLER_KEY="<your-installer-key>" bash install.sh

After installation, grant the SenseOn agent Full Disk Access:

  1. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security.
  2. Scroll to Full Disk Access and select it.
  3. Enable the toggle for senseon-see.app and enter your password.
  4. Restart the agent: sudo seectl stop && sudo seectl start.

Windows

Requires: Windows 8.1 or later, Windows Server 2012 R2 or later.

Run the command in an elevated PowerShell session:

$env:SENSEON_INSTALLER_KEY="<your-installer-key>"; `
  iwr -useb https://<your-tenant>.senseon.io/install.ps1 | iex

The platform displays a SHA-256 checksum next to the command. If your security policy requires checksum verification before executing remote scripts, download the script first, verify the checksum, then run it:

# Step 1: Download the script
Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing -Uri "https://<your-tenant>.senseon.io/install.ps1" -OutFile install.ps1
# Step 2: Verify the checksum (compare against the value shown in Settings > Universal Sensor)
Get-FileHash install.ps1 -Algorithm SHA256
# Step 3: Run the script
$env:SENSEON_INSTALLER_KEY="<your-installer-key>"
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install.ps1

For a remote / unattended install via your software management tool, wrap the command in a script and have your MDM execute the script with administrator privileges. See the Automated Deployment guides for tool-specific instructions.

Verifying the Install

After running the install command:

  1. Log in to SenseOn.
  2. Go to Digital Estate > Devices.
  3. Confirm the host appears in the list with its expected hostname and a recent Last Seen timestamp.

For diagnostics if the host does not appear, see Troubleshooting.