Installing Ollama on Windows and Setting Up Open WebUI

This article demonstrates how to install Ollama and Open WebUI on your local machine to self-host and interact with Generative AI models.

For optimal performance, it’s recommended to install Ollama natively on your machine. Download the installer from the official website and follow the installation instructions. Once installed, launch Ollama and let it run in the background. Ollama provides a Command Line Interface (CLI) that enables you to manage compatible models, including pulling/pushing from a registry, viewing installed models, and creating new ones. You can view all available CLI commands by executing:

ollama help

To verify if Ollama is running properly, visit http://127.0.0.1:11434 or execute:

curl http://localhost:11434/api/version

You can find Ollama-compatible models in their library . For example, to install llama3, run:

ollama pull llama3:8b

Choose models based on your machine’s specifications. I prefer using smaller models since my development environment has a graphics card that isn’t compatible with Ollama (as of the current version). Additionally, if you would like to utilise GPU resources, you can find a list of Ollama-compatible GPUs here.

While you can interact directly with installed models using the CLI, Open WebUI offers a more user-friendly alternative with many more capabilities. Their documentation provides detailed information on getting started. The recommended method is to run Open WebUI using Docker. The default Docker command is:

docker run -d -p 3000:8080 --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway -v open-webui:/app/backend/data --name open-webui --restart always ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

Keep in mind that:

• Server Connectivity Issues are common with Open WebUI. In my case, port 3000 was already in use by another service, so I had to change it to 3030.
• Server Connectivity Issues are common with Open WebUI. In my case, port 3000 was already in use by another service, so I had to change it to 3030.
• Both Ollama and Open WebUI are rapidly evolving technologies. To avoid potential compatibility issues, it’s recommended to use a specific version of Open WebUI rather than the latest one. For easier solution maintenance, consider using docker-compose. The recommended Docker run command, mentioned above, can be converted to this docker-compose configuration:

services:
  open-webui:
    image: ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:v0.4.8
    container_name: open-webui
    ports:
      - "3030:8080"
    extra_hosts:
      - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"
    volumes:
      - open-webui:/app/backend/data
    restart: always
volumes:
  open-webui:

To start the container, simply run docker compose up -d. Ensure Ollama is running before launching the container.