FAQ

FAQ

Do I need anything installed first? Yes, and these are separate from redStackPRO: Terraform, the AWS CLI or the gcloud CLI (whichever cloud you target), and a cloud account with credentials and billing set up. redStackPRO generates the files; it does not install any of these for you. See Getting Started and Deploying a Range, and Cloud Prerequisites for the permissions your cloud identity needs and CLI setup quick-starts.

Does redStackPRO hold my cloud credentials? No. It generates a working directory and hands it to you. You run Terraform and Ansible yourself, under your own credentials, on your own machine. See Concepts.

Which providers can I deploy to? GCP and AWS, tested end to end for both target ranges and attack infrastructure. Azure is a preview backend: it allocates public addresses, but its private DNS and peering modules are not built yet. Proxmox and ESXi are on the roadmap, and neither can allocate a public address on its own, so redirector reachability depends on a network redStackPRO does not control. See Providers.

What is the difference between the canvas and the topology? The canvas is the surface you work on. The topology is what you build on it, the infrastructure as nodes and edges. The topology is the thing that compiles and deploys.

Can I edit a shipped lab? Yes. A lab opens read-only so the baseline is safe. Clone it and the copy is yours to change. See Labs.

Where do the walkthrough solutions come from? They ship with the labs, under docs/solutions/ in the repo (one folder per lab, linked from Labs). Each one is generated from, or hand-authored against, the same topology that gets deployed, so it matches what you get. redStackPRO is a validation range, so the solutions are references, not spoilers.

Docker or from source? Docker is the fastest way to run the canvas. From source is for developing on redStackPRO itself. See Getting Started.

Can I use Postgres instead of SQLite? Yes. The Compose file has an optional Postgres profile for a shared deployment. SQLite is the default for a single user.

Why does the compiler refuse my redirector? It needs a real domain. A redirector answers to the internet by name, and nothing can invent that. Supply one with --hostname or in the inspector. See Redirectors and Cover Stories.

Is it free? Yes, MIT. The GOAD range templates are derived from GOAD and carry GPLv3.