Scanopy — Self-Updating Network Diagrams

Introduction

Scanopy is a self-hosted network documentation tool that scans your infrastructure and generates interactive topology diagrams automatically. Instead of manually maintaining network maps in Visio or draw.io, Scanopy discovers hosts, services, and connections, then keeps the diagrams current as things change.

What Scanopy Does

• Scans your network to discover hosts, open ports, and service dependencies
• Generates interactive topology diagrams from discovered infrastructure
• Updates diagrams automatically on a configurable schedule
• Visualizes connections between services, containers, and network segments
• Exports diagrams in multiple formats for documentation and sharing

Architecture Overview

Scanopy is built in Rust for performance and low resource usage. It uses active and passive scanning techniques to map network topology, stores discovered data in an embedded database, and renders diagrams through a web-based visualization engine. The scanner runs on a configurable schedule, diffing results to detect changes.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Deploy via Docker with host networking for full network visibility
• Configure scan targets by specifying IP ranges, subnets, or CIDR blocks
• Set scan intervals to balance freshness against network load
• Customize diagram layouts and grouping rules through the web UI
• Store persistent data in a mounted volume for backup and portability

Key Features

• Zero-maintenance diagrams that reflect actual network state
• Interactive web-based visualization with zoom, filter, and search
• Change detection that highlights new, removed, or modified hosts and services
• Lightweight Rust binary with minimal CPU and memory footprint
• Supports both flat networks and complex multi-subnet environments

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Netbox — inventory and IPAM database requiring manual data entry; Scanopy auto-discovers topology
• draw.io / Visio — manual diagramming tools; Scanopy generates diagrams from live scans
• Nmap — command-line scanner with no visualization; Scanopy adds a persistent visual layer
• LibreNMS — full SNMP-based monitoring platform; Scanopy focuses specifically on topology visualization

FAQ

Q: Does it require SNMP or agents on hosts? A: No. Scanopy uses active network scanning and does not require agents or SNMP to be enabled on target hosts.

Q: Can I customize how the diagram looks? A: Yes. The web UI allows grouping by subnet, custom labels, and layout adjustments.

Q: How often does it rescan? A: Scan intervals are configurable, from minutes to daily, depending on your needs.

Q: Is it safe to run on production networks? A: Scanopy uses lightweight scanning by default. You can tune scan intensity and exclude sensitive ranges.

Sources

• https://github.com/scanopy/scanopy
• https://github.com/scanopy/scanopy#readme