Konstantinos Andreou

Posted on Mar 14

PowerBeacon Is Live: A Self-Host Wake-on-LAN Orchestration Tool

#selfhosted #opensource #homelab #linux

PowerBeacon Is Live

I've just released PowerBeacon: a self-hosted Wake-on-LAN orchestration platform built for homelabs, home offices, small teams, and anyone tired of manually waking machines one-by-one.

If you manage multiple devices across one or more network segments, you already know the pain:

Devices are asleep when you need them
WOL tools are often single-host and not built for organization
Dockerized services may not have direct LAN broadcast access (especially on Windows/macOS Docker Desktop)
Existing setups rarely provide proper inventory, auth, and operational visibility

PowerBeacon solves this by separating control from execution:

Frontend -> Backend API -> Agent -> LAN Broadcast -> Target Device

The backend is your control plane. The agent is your execution plane. That architecture is the key to making wake flows reliable in real environments.

What PowerBeacon Solves

PowerBeacon turns Wake-on-LAN from a loose script into an orchestrated service.

You can:

Organize devices and agents into clusters
Associate each device with multiple agents
Send a wake request for one device or an entire cluster
Fan out wake dispatch through every associated online agent
Track agent health through registration and heartbeat state

This matters when one relay host goes offline, one subnet route changes, or one interface is misbehaving. Multi-agent dispatch gives you redundancy instead of brittle single-path wake attempts.

Core Features

Centralized device, cluster, and agent management
Multi-agent wake dispatch for higher reliability
Cluster-level wake orchestration for batch operations
FastAPI backend with clear API boundaries under /api
React + TypeScript frontend for daily operations
Lightweight Go agent with:
- Auto-registration
- Heartbeats
- Network/broadcast detection
- Token-protected /wol endpoint
Local authentication and OIDC support
Cross-platform agent support (Windows, Linux, macOS)
Open-source and MIT licensed

Why It Is a Great Tool to Self-Host

Self-hosting is where PowerBeacon shines.

You keep ownership of your infrastructure and identity configuration
You decide where wake-capable agents run (close to your LAN targets)
You avoid cloud lock-in for a core internal operation
You can deploy quickly with Docker Compose and scale out agents as needed
You get a practical architecture for mixed environments instead of a toy WOL sender

PowerBeacon is designed for operational reality: the control service can run in containers, while agents run on hosts with direct network reachability. This gives you both manageability and LAN-level execution.

Built for Real-World Constraints

A common failure mode for WOL platforms is assuming the backend can always broadcast directly to the LAN. In many setups, that assumption breaks.

PowerBeacon intentionally avoids that trap:

The backend does not send magic packets directly
Agents perform wake operations from the host network
Wake requests can traverse multiple online agents for resiliency

Result: fewer false negatives, fewer one-off scripts, and a clearer operational model.

Quick Start

Follow the documentation for docker deployment here.
After deployment, open the app, complete the onboarding setup, register one or more agents, add your devices, and start waking systems from a central UI.

Who PowerBeacon Is For

Homelab operators managing NAS, hypervisors, and utility nodes
Developers who need workstations online on demand
Teams with shared build/test machines
Ops engineers who want predictable wake workflows with visibility

Final Note

Wake-on-LAN should be dependable, not improvised.

PowerBeacon gives you a modern, self-hosted control surface for power orchestration, with a clean architecture that respects how networks actually behave.

If that sounds like your setup, spin it up and share feedback.

DEV Community