How to Install Open WebUI on Ubuntu 24.04

Introduction

Open WebUI is the best self-hosted UI for Ollama — ChatGPT-like with RAG, multi-user, voice, image gen, plugins. Connects to Ollama, OpenAI APIs & more. Deploy on Ubuntu 24.04 with Docker behind Nginx + SSL.

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 24.04 · 2 vCPU / 2 GB RAM min (4 vCPU / 4 GB+ for RAG)
• Docker (24.x+) + Compose v2 · Ollama on localhost:11434
• Ports 80/443 open · domain → server IP

1 — Install Docker

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER && newgrp docker
docker --version && docker compose version

2 — Docker Compose

~/open-webui/docker-compose.yml:

services:
  open-webui:
    image: ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports: ["3000:8080"]
    volumes: [./open-webui:/app/backend/data]
    environment:
      - OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:11434
      - WEBUI_SECRET_KEY=***      - WEBUI_NAME=My AI
      - DEFAULT_MODELS=llama3.2:latest
      - ENABLE_SIGNUP=true

openssl rand -hex 32
docker compose up -d

Visit http://your-ip:3000 → create admin account.

3 — Nginx + SSL

sudo apt install -y nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

/etc/nginx/sites-available/open-webui:

server {
    listen 80; server_name your-domain.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
server {
    listen 443 ssl http2; server_name your-domain.com;
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/privkey.pem;
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_read_timeout 86400s;
    }
}

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/open-webui /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Env Vars

• OLLAMA_BASE_URL — Ollama endpoint (def: http://localhost:11434)
• WEBUI_SECRET_KEY — Session key. Generate: openssl rand -hex 32
• WEBUI_NAME — Custom display name
• DEFAULT_MODELS — Pre-selected models (CSV)
• ENABLE_SIGNUP — false = no public registration (def: true)
• RAG_EMBEDDING_ENGINE — Embedding backend (def: ollama)
• RAG_TOP_K — Chunks per RAG query (def: 5)

Bundles ChromaDB.

Backups

cd ~/open-webui && tar -czf bk-$(date +%F).tar.gz ./open-webui

Cron (3 AM, 30-day retention):

0 3 * * * cd /home/ubuntu/open-webui && tar -czf /backups/ow-$(date +\%F).tar.gz ./open-webui && find /backups -name 'ow-*.tar.gz' -mtime +30 -delete

Updating

cd ~/open-webui && docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

Troubleshooting

DB migration fails

Check docker compose logs --tail=100, restore backup. Manual guide.

Ollama refused

• sudo systemctl status ollama; curl localhost:11434/api/tags
• Set OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0:11434 if 127.0.0.1 only
• docker exec open-webui curl http://<host>:11434/api/tags

host.docker.internal fails

Docker Desktop only — not Docker Engine on Linux. Fixes:

1. Host LAN IP — http://192.168.1.50:11434
2. extra_hosts — extra_hosts: - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"
3. network_mode: host — WebUI on port 8080

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