SmallCTL - Can a small local model be useful in your homelab? How good is local ai?!

In this video we test qwen 3.5 9b Abilities to troubleshoot DNS issues across two hosts. How good is local ai? Is it actually useful? Can it actually fix stuff? lets find out together!

Checkout latest smallctl here - https://github.com/lowspeclabs/SmallCTL

Exact Prompt Used
"
remove the angled brackets from this prompt "You are operating in my home lab.

Password: "Temp@Pass"
Username: root

Goal:
Diagnose why vikunja.lab.local does not resolve correctly from this machine.

Local machine:
- This is the SmallCTL/client host.
- Expected client IP: 192.168.1.160/24

Targets:
- DNS server: root@192.168.1.161
- Service host: root@192.168.1.161
- Expected service URL: http://192.168.1.161:3456
- Expected service name: vikunja.lab.local
- Expected DNS record: vikunja.lab.local to 192.168.1.161

Rules:
- Do not make changes until you prove the cause.
- First test from the local machine.
- Then inspect the DNS server configuration.
- Separate client-side, DNS-server-side, and service-side findings.
- If a fix is needed, propose the exact change first.
- Fix only the relevant DNS entry.
- Do not randomly restart unrelated services.
- After applying the fix, verify with dig/nslookup and curl.

Required local tests:
- cat /etc/resolv.conf
- dig vikunja.lab.local
- dig @192.168.1.161 vikunja.lab.local
- nslookup vikunja.lab.local 192.168.1.161
- curl -I http://192.168.1.161:3456
- curl -I http://vikunja.lab.local:3456
- curl -I --resolve vikunja.lab.local:3456:192.168.1.161 http://vikunja.lab.local:3456

Required DNS server inspection:
- ssh root@192.168.1.161
- systemctl status dnsmasq
- systemctl status lab-vikunja
- grep -R "vikunja" /etc/dnsmasq.conf /etc/dnsmasq.d/
- dnsmasq --test
- ss -lntup | grep -E ':53|:3456'

Expected diagnosis:
The service is reachable at 192.168.1.161:3456, but DNS returns either no record or the wrong IP for vikunja.lab.local.
The root cause should be DNS-record-side, not application-side.

Deliver:
1. Root cause
2. Commands run
3. Evidence
4. Fix proposed
5. Fix applied
6. Verification result"
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Видео SmallCTL - Can a small local model be useful in your homelab? How good is local ai?! канала LowSpecLabs