I came across an interesting open source project today that I hadn't seen mentioned before called LAN Orangutan, and I think it has a lot of potential for home lab environments and scanning your network, discovery, etc.
One of the challenges I think that most of us have is simply keeping track of everything. It's easy to spin up a new VM, add another mini PC, connect an IoT device, or build out another VLAN. Before long you're wondering where that random IP address came from or what server is actually running a particular service. I have been there MANY times.
LAN Orangutan looks like it aims to solve that problem. Instead of just running a one-time network scan, it provides a lightweight inventory of your network with a clean web interface where discovered devices are stored and organized over time. It uses Nmap for discovery. So it definitely comes from good "stock" with its architecture for scanning.
Some of the features that caught my eye with this project includes:
- Automatic network discovery
- Multi-network scanning
- Device inventory with persistent records
- Device labels and notes
- Tailscale support
- Modern web dashboard
- CLI with JSON output
- Cross-platform support for Linux, Windows, and macOS
- Single binary deployment
The Tailscale support is especially interesting. I know quite a few of us have multiple home labs or remote sites connected with Tailscale. So this is super interesting being able to inventory devices across those networks.
I also like that the project doesn't appear to be trying to become an all-in-one monitoring platform. There are already plenty of tools in this space that can collect metrics, monitor uptime, or manage enterprise devices. LAN Orangutan is instead laser focused on that simple question of finding out "what devices are on my network?"
According to the roadmap, the developers are also planning features like scheduled scans, notifications, historical tracking, and an API, which could make it even more useful for automation and keeping home lab documentation up to date.
I'm curious how it compares with some of the other tools many of us already use, such as:
- NetBox
- NetAlertX
- LibreNMS
- Uptime Kuma
- Smokeping
- ArpWatch
LAN Orangutan looks like it could fill a nice niche as a lightweight discovery and inventory tool without bringing along a lot of additional complexity.
I'm planning to spin this up in my own lab and see how it performs across multiple VLANs and remote networks. If it works as well as it looks, I could see it becoming another useful utility to keep around alongside the rest of the home lab toolbox.
Check out the project on Github here: 291-Group/LAN-Orangutan: LAN Orangutan is a lightweight network scanner with persistent device labeling, multi-network support, and Tailscale integration. Built by 291 Group.
Has anyone here already tried it? I'd be interested to hear how well it performs and if
you've found any features that really stand out.