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Cloud server with Open WebUI

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Open WebUI Virtual Machine is a preconfigured cloud server with a tool for deploying large language models (LLM) and interacting with them via a web interface. The tool provides full control over the data being processed and support for advanced RAG.

The image from which the server is deployed contains:

  • Open WebUI — an extensible web interface for working with LLMs, supporting Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs;

  • Ollama — a platform for locally downloading and running LLMs. Ollama is installed automatically only when creating a server with a GPU. See the Minimum resource requirements subsection for more details;

  • Docker — a platform for running containerized applications;

  • Docker Compose — a tool for running multi-container applications in Docker;

  • drivers required for working with graphics processing units (GPU).

Before creating a server, read the software license agreements included in the image.

Use cases

  • deploying LLMs with full control over the data being processed;
  • managing access to the web interface;
  • interacting with LLMs via a chatbot;
  • working with external data sources via integrated RAG.

Minimum resource requirements

Number of vCPUs2
RAM8 GB
Boot volume80 GB
GPUOptional *

* Ollama is installed automatically only when creating a server with a GPU. Without a GPU, Open WebUI works as an interface to connect only to external LLMs—those running on other servers or via API.

Getting started with Open WebUI

For Open WebUI to work, the cloud server must be accessible from the internet. To do this, when creating a server, you need to create a private subnet and attach a public floating IP address.

  1. Create a public floating IP address.

  2. Create a cloud server with Open WebUI.

  3. Create an administrator account.

  4. Launch Open WebUI.

1. Create a public floating IP address

Create a public floating IP address to make the cloud server with Open WebUI accessible from the internet.

Use the Create a public floating IP address section of the Public Floating IP addresses guide.

2. Create a cloud server with Open WebUI

  1. In the Control panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Cloud Servers.

  2. Click Create server.

  3. Fill in the blocks:

  4. Check the cloud server price.

  5. Click Create.

Name and location

  1. Enter the server name. It will be set as the hostname in the operating system.

  2. Select a location where your server will be created. The available server configurations and resource costs depend on the location. You cannot change the location after the server has been created.

Source

  1. Open the Applications tab.

  2. Select Open WebUI.

  3. Optional: If you need a different current or archive version of the application, select the required version in the Version field.

Configuration

Select a configuration from the GPU line 2 vCPU, RAM starting from 8 GB and a boot disk size starting from 80 GB. Two types of server configurations are available for this line:

  • prebuilt configurations — range configurations with different specifications, in which the resource ratio is fixed;
  • custom configurations — configurations in which any resource ratio can be specified.

Configurations use different processors depending on the line and pool segment. You can customize the selected configuration. After the server is created, you will be able to change the configuration.

  1. Open the tab with the GPU line.

  2. Click Prebuilt.

  3. Optional: You can customize the configuration if you are creating a server in the multi-zone pool segment ru-6 or pool segments ru-3b, ru-7a, and ru-7b:

    3.1. Expand the block with the configuration settings description.

    3.2. Optional: select the processor manufacturer. Manufacturer selection is not available in all pools.

    3.3. Optional: if you do not want physical processor cores pinned to the cloud server vCPUs, clear the Dedicated Cores checkbox. Learn more in the Dedicated Cores article.

    3.4. Optional: if you want to disable Hyper-Threading for a server with dedicated cores, uncheck the Hyper-Threading (SMT) checkbox.

    3.5. Optional: if you are creating a server with dedicated cores and want to host a multiprocessor server on a single NUMA node, select the Mandatory placement on a single NUMA node checkbox. You can host a server with 4 vCPUs or more on one NUMA node. If the cloud server resources cannot be placed on a single node, it will not be created. Learn more in the Placement on a single NUMA node subsection of the Dedicated Cores article.

  4. Select a GPU.

  5. Select a configuration.

  6. If both local disks and network volumes are available in the selected configuration, select the disk to be used as the boot disk:

    • local disk — check the Local SSD NVMe disk checkbox. A server with a local disk can only be created from images and applications;
    • network volume — do not check the Local SSD NVMe disk checkbox.

    The amount of RAM allocated to the server may be less than specified in the configuration — the operating system kernel reserves a portion of RAM depending on the kernel version and distribution. You can check the allocated volume on the server using the sudo dmesg | grep Memory command.

Volumes

  1. If you did not check the Local SSD NVMe disk checkbox when setting up the configuration, the first specified network volume will be used as the server boot disk. To configure it:

    1.1. Select the type of network boot disk.

    1.2. Specify the size of the network boot disk in GB or TB. Observe the maximum size limits for network volumes.

    1.3. If you selected the Universal v2 or Fast SSD v2 disk type, specify the total number of read and write operations in IOPS. After creating the disk, you can change the IOPS value — reduce or increase it. The number of IOPS changes is unlimited.

  2. Optional: add an additional network volume server :

    2.1. Click Add.

    2.2. Select the type of network volume.

    2.3. Specify the size of the network disk in GB or TB. Observe the maximum size limits for network volumes.

    2.4. If you selected the Universal v2 or Fast SSD v2 disk type, specify the total number of read and write operations in IOPS. After the disk is created, you can change the IOPS value — decrease or increase it. The number of IOPS changes is unlimited.

    After the server is created, you will be able to attach new additional disks.

Internet

Configure public access to the server.

The cloud server will be added to a private subnet that is connected to a cloud router with 1:1 NAT and internet access. Internet access will be provided via the cloud router. The server will be accessible from the internet via a public floating IP address.

  1. In the Internet access field, select the Public floating IP address access type.

  2. Select the public floating IP address you created in step 1.

Private network

The cloud server can be added to an existing or a new private subnet.

  1. In the Subnet field, select a private subnet.

  2. Optional: In the IP address field, change the default IP address.

  3. In the Router field, select an existing router or create a new one.

    If the router is not connected to the internet, it will be automatically connected to the internet after the server is created.

Security

Select security groups to filter traffic on server ports. Without security groups, traffic will be blocked. If the block is missing, traffic filtering (port security) is disabled in the server network. With traffic filtering disabled, all traffic is allowed.

Access

  1. Place an SSH key for the project on the server for secure connection:

    1.1. If an SSH key for the project has not been added to the cloud platform, click Add SSH key, enter a key name, paste the public key in OpenSSH format, and click Add.

    1.2. If an SSH key for the project has been added to the cloud platform, select an existing key in the SSH key field. The SSH key is only available in the pool where it is hosted.

  2. Optional: In the Password for “root”:

    2.1. Copy the password for the root user — a user with unrestricted privileges for all system actions.

    2.2. Save the password in a secure place and do not share it in plain text.

Additional settings

  1. If you are planning to create several servers and want to increase infrastructure fault tolerance, add the server to a placement group:

    1.1. To create a new group, click Create in the Placement group field.

    1.2. Select New group and enter the group name.

    1.3. Select the placement policy on different hosts:

    • soft — soft-anti-affinity. The system will try to place servers on different hosts. If there is no suitable host when creating the server, it will be created on the same host;
    • mandatory — anti-affinity. Servers in the group must be located on different hosts. If there is no suitable host when creating the server, the server will not be created.

    1.4. Once the group is created, in the Placement group field, select the placement group.

  2. To add additional information or filter servers in the list, add server tags. OS and configuration tags are added automatically. To add a new tag, in the Tags field, enter the tag.

  3. To add a script that will be executed using the cloud-init agent during the first operating system boot, in the Automation block, in the User data:

    • open the Text tab and paste the script as text;
    • or open the File tab and upload the file with the script.

3. Create an administrator account

  1. Open the http://<ip_address> page in your browser.

    Specify <ip_address> — the public floating IP address of the cloud server. You can copy it in the control panel: in the top menu, click Products → Cloud Servers → in the server card, click next to the public floating IP address.

  2. In the Open WebUI web interface, click Let's get started.

  3. Enter a username.

  4. Enter your email.

  5. Enter your password.

  6. Click Create Administrator account.

4. Launch Open WebUI

  1. Open the http://<ip_address> page in your browser.

    Specify <ip_address> — the public floating IP address of the cloud server. You can copy it in the control panel: in the top menu, click Products → Cloud Servers → in the server card, click next to the public floating IP address.

  2. Enter the administrator email address you specified when creating the account in step 4.

  3. Enter the administrator password you specified when creating the account in step 5.

  4. Click Sign in.