Proxmox - HP3 Wake-on-LAN (WOL) Monitoring & Sniffer

Calendar August 3, 2026
Homelab, Networking
Proxmox, Wol, Wakeonlan, Monitoring, Systemd, Hp3

Proxmox - Wake-on-LAN (WOL) Monitoring & Sniffer#

This guide outlines a persistent, lightweight background service for monitoring and logging Wake-on-LAN (WOL) Magic Packets on the Proxmox network. The payload is retained so the target MAC can be identified even when a server has multiple NICs or alternate MAC addresses.

2026-08-03 Antigravity chat: agy –conversation=3b2d07f7-d649-4fed-9976-8f0deadf60f9

1. Overview & Purpose#

  • Primary Target: HP3 (10.1.1.13), documented MAC ec:b1:d7:7c:a9:48
  • Additional Targets: Any WOL target visible on the monitored segment, including HP2 (94:57:a5:65:7e:88)
  • Capture Host: MMProxmox / MacMini (10.1.1.10)
  • Capture Interface: bond0 (active-backup bond; nic1 currently active)
  • Objective: Capture the source IP, source Ethernet MAC, timestamp, VLAN, and WOL payload target MAC.
  • Resource Overhead: Near zero (~1 MB RAM, 0% CPU overhead).

2. Systemd Service Specification#

The sniffer uses tcpdump running as a background systemd daemon. It listens on the physical uplink (bond0) for UDP port 9/7 and raw Ethernet WOL traffic, retaining the complete packet payload in /var/log/wol_sniffer.log.