Cisco AnyConnect VPN software allows remote users and employees to securely connect to a Cisco VPN gateway running in an enterprise environment..

Employees use Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client to establish connectivity to a Cisco SSL VPN server, and if authentication is approved, the connected users or employees are grant access to internal resources..

This is a widely used and popular VPN server within enterprises and if you’re a Linux user who need help installing and using AnyConnect, this brief tutorial is going to show you how…

It shows you how to download and install AnyConnect using Ubuntu 18.04 or 16.04 desktop computers…

Install AnyConnect.

This first thing you need to be aware of is not everyone can download Cisco AnyConnect VPN client… The software is available to customers with active AnyConnect Apex, Plus or VPN Only term/contracts..

You system / network administrator(s) may have to get login to Cisco’s portal and download the software for you… or provide you login to get in to the portal..

AnyConnect download location is at the link below:https://software.cisco.com/download/home/283000185

Step 1: Install Prerequisites

Some packages will need to be install prior to install AnyConnect… Do that, run the commands below:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lib32z1 lib32ncurses5

Step 2: Install AnyConnect VPN Client

After installing the packages above, go and download AnyConnect file from it’s Download location…

Once you have downloaded the AnyConnect VPN tarball, you can double-click to extract the folder downloaded folder or use the commands below to extract… The current file should be named:  anyconnect-linux64-4.7.03052-predeploy-k9.tar.gz.

By default the file will be downloaded in your home folder ( /home/user/Downloads ), but typically the last used directory of the browser is where automatic downloads are placed…

Run the commands below to extract the downloaded file if you’re unable to double-click to extract….

tar xvf anyconnect-linux64-4.7.03052-predeploy-k9.tar.gz

After extracting, open the newly-extracted folder to find the VPN folder… Browse to the VPN folder

cd vpn

Right-click the vpn_install.sh file.

and select Run.

Use the GUI App to install the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client at the root level.

If you can’t install it via the GUI app, then run the commands below to install…

sudo ./vpn_install.sh

That will install Cisco AnyConnect VPN client for you…

Installing DART

To install Dart, follow the steps below:

First, open the dart. folder inside the newly-extract anyconnect folder…

Right-click the dart_install.sh file.

Then select Run.

Use the GUI App to install the Cisco AnyConnect Diagnostic and Reporting Tool.

If the GUI installation doesn’t work, run the commands below to install it..

sudo .⁄dart_install.sh

That should install AnyConnect for you including DART… After that, Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client should be ready to use..

Now all you have to do is launch it and connect to the VPN gateway…