| SYSTEM INFORMATION | |
|---|---|
| OS type and version | Debian Linux 12 |
| Webmin version | 2.660 |
| Virtualmin version | 8.2.0 Prof |
| Webserver version | Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2690 0 @ 2.90GHz, 32 cores |
| Related packages | podman version 4.3.1 |
Hello,
I’m reporting a problem deploying Open WebUI using Virtualmin’s Podman application manager.
Environment:
-
Debian: 12
-
Virtualmin: 8.2.0 Pro
-
Virtualmin Podman plugin: 1.7.0
-
Podman: 4.3.1
-
Open WebUI image:
ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:v0.10.1 -
Ollama is installed directly on the host
-
Ollama listens only on
127.0.0.1:11434 -
The deployment is for the virtual server
ai.donpeek.com
When I attempted to install Open WebUI through Virtualmin, the deployment failed with:
The application web service did not become ready; empty HTTP response.
Virtualmin then rolled back the failed deployment, so no Open WebUI container appeared in the Container Apps Manager.
To confirm that the image itself worked, I manually started it through the rootful Podman runtime with:
-
Container port:
8080 -
Host binding:
127.0.0.1:3000 -
Image:
ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:v0.10.1
That container starts successfully, remains running, and returns HTTP 200 locally. The Virtualmin reverse proxy for ai.donpeek.com also works with this manually created container.
Current working state:
-
Container:
openwebui-test -
Status: running
-
Port mapping:
127.0.0.1:3000 -> 8080/tcp -
Local health check: HTTP 200
-
Ollama service: active
-
Existing applications using Ollama continue to work
Because this working container was created manually, it is understandably not registered in Virtualmin’s saved container metadata and does not appear in Container Apps Manager. I am not reporting that part as the primary bug.
The issue I would like help diagnosing is why the Virtualmin-managed Open WebUI deployment failed its readiness check, while the same image works when port 8080 is published manually.
Could you please check whether:
-
The Open WebUI recipe uses container port
8080for this image version. -
The readiness check waits long enough for Open WebUI’s first startup and database initialization.
-
The plugin correctly distinguishes an empty HTTP response from an application that is still initializing.
-
The recipe’s selected rootless networking mode could prevent or delay the readiness response.
-
There is a supported way to adopt/register an existing working rootful container, or whether it must be recreated through Virtualmin.
I can provide the complete deployment output and sanitized container logs if needed. Please let me know which Virtualmin or Webmin log files would be most useful. I will remove passwords, tokens, cookies, and secret environment values before posting them.
Thank you.
