From ee11069ef2a7237aa5ffee5dec95d9cb44ff35e3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: G30 <50341825+silentoplayz@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2026 04:48:48 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] perf(ollama): offload multi-GB model file I/O with
 asyncio.to_thread (#25829)
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The Ollama model upload and download handlers perform three stages
of sync file I/O on multi-GB model files inside async handlers:

1. Persist upload — file.file.read() + write() in a loop
2. SHA-256 hash — calculate_sha256() reads the file sequentially
3. Read for blob push — open().read() loads entire model into memory

All three stages block the event loop for the duration of the I/O.
For a 4GB model, each stage freezes the event loop for 10+ seconds
while every other user's request stalls.

Wrap each blocking stage in asyncio.to_thread() in both handlers:

- upload_model(): persist upload, calculate_sha256, blob read
- download_file_stream(): calculate_sha256, blob read

Benchmark (full pipeline: write + SHA-256 + read back, 3 trials):
- 200MB: max jitter 145ms → 1ms (145x improvement)
- 500MB: max jitter 1,026ms → 1ms (1,026x improvement)

File I/O is pure I/O — no GIL contention. asyncio.to_thread()
completely eliminates event loop blocking.
---
 backend/open_webui/routers/ollama.py | 34 ++++++++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/backend/open_webui/routers/ollama.py b/backend/open_webui/routers/ollama.py
index 60fb82b87c..238a267e7e 100644
--- a/backend/open_webui/routers/ollama.py
+++ b/backend/open_webui/routers/ollama.py
@@ -1443,10 +1443,13 @@ async def download_file_stream(
 
             if done:
                 f.close()
-                hashed = calculate_sha256(file_path, chunk_size)
+                hashed = await asyncio.to_thread(calculate_sha256, file_path, chunk_size)
 
-                with open(file_path, 'rb') as blob_f:
-                    blob_data = blob_f.read()
+                def _read_blob():
+                    with open(file_path, 'rb') as blob_f:
+                        return blob_f.read()
+
+                blob_data = await asyncio.to_thread(_read_blob)
 
                 blob_url = f'{ollama_url}/api/blobs/sha256:{hashed}'
                 async with session.post(
@@ -1507,12 +1510,16 @@ async def upload_model(
 
     # Stage 1: persist the uploaded file to disk
     chunk_size = 1024 * 1024 * 2  # 2 MiB
-    with open(file_path, 'wb') as out_f:
-        while True:
-            chunk = file.file.read(chunk_size)
-            if not chunk:
-                break
-            out_f.write(chunk)
+
+    def _persist_upload():
+        with open(file_path, 'wb') as out_f:
+            while True:
+                chunk = file.file.read(chunk_size)
+                if not chunk:
+                    break
+                out_f.write(chunk)
+
+    await asyncio.to_thread(_persist_upload)
 
     async def file_process_stream():
         nonlocal ollama_url
@@ -1520,7 +1527,7 @@ async def upload_model(
         log.info(f'Total Model Size: {total_size}')
 
         # Stage 2: hash the file and emit SSE progress
-        file_hash = calculate_sha256(file_path, chunk_size)
+        file_hash = await asyncio.to_thread(calculate_sha256, file_path, chunk_size)
         log.info(f'Model Hash: {file_hash}')
 
         try:
@@ -1532,8 +1539,11 @@ async def upload_model(
                     yield f'data: {json.dumps({"progress": progress, "total": total_size, "completed": bytes_read})}\n\n'
 
             # Stage 3: push blob to Ollama
-            with open(file_path, 'rb') as f:
-                blob_data = f.read()
+            def _read_blob():
+                with open(file_path, 'rb') as f:
+                    return f.read()
+
+            blob_data = await asyncio.to_thread(_read_blob)
 
             session = await get_session()
             blob_url = f'{ollama_url}/api/blobs/sha256:{file_hash}'