OVMS Pull mode#

This document describes how to leverage OpenVINO Model Server (OVMS) pull feature to automate deployment configuration with Generative AI models. When pulling from Hugging Face Hub or when pulling GGUF model, no additional steps are required. However, when pulling models in Pytorch format, you have to install additional python dependencies when using baremetal execution so that optimum-cli is available for ovms executable or rely on the docker image openvino/model_server:latest-py. In summary you have 3 options:

pulling pre-configured models in IR format (described below)
pulling GGUF models from Hugging Face
pulling models with automatic conversion and quantization via optimum-cli. Described in the pulling with conversion

Note: Models in IR format must be exported using optimum-cli including tokenizer and detokenizer files also in IR format, if applicable. If missing, tokenizer and detokenizer should be added using convert_tokenizer --with-detokenizer tool.

Pulling pre-configured models#

There is a special OVMS mode to pull the model from Hugging Face without starting the service. It is triggered by --pull parameter. The application quits after the model is downloaded. Without --pull option, the model will be deployed and server started.

With Docker

Required: Docker Engine installed

docker run $(id -u):$(id -g) --rm -v <model_repository_path>:/models:rw openvino/model_server:latest-gpu --pull --source_model <model_name_in_HF> --model_repository_path /models --model_name <external_model_name> --target_device <DEVICE> [--gguf_filename SPECIFIC_QUANTIZATION_FILENAME.gguf] --task <task> [TASK_SPECIFIC_PARAMETERS]

On Baremetal Host

Required: OpenVINO Model Server package - see deployment instructions for details.

ovms --pull --source_model <model_name_in_HF> --model_repository_path <model_repository_path> --model_name <external_model_name> --target_device <DEVICE> [--gguf_filename SPECIFIC_QUANTIZATION_FILENAME.gguf] --task <task> [TASK_SPECIFIC_PARAMETERS]

Note: GGUF format model is only supported with --task text_generation. For list of supported models check blog.

Example for pulling OpenVINO/Phi-3-mini-FastDraft-50M-int8-ov:

With Docker

Required: Docker Engine installed

docker run $(id -u):$(id -g) --rm -v <model_repository_path>:/models:rw openvino/model_server:latest --pull --source_model "OpenVINO/Phi-3-mini-FastDraft-50M-int8-ov" --model_repository_path /models --model_name Phi-3-mini-FastDraft-50M-int8-ov --task text_generation

On Baremetal Host

Required: OpenVINO Model Server package - see deployment instructions for details.

ovms --pull --source_model "OpenVINO/Phi-3-mini-FastDraft-50M-int8-ov" --model_repository_path /models --model_name Phi-3-mini-FastDraft-50M-int8-ov --task text_generation

Example for pulling GGUF model unsloth/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-GGUF with Q4_K_M quantization on baremetal host:

With Docker

Required: Docker Engine installed

docker run $(id -u):$(id -g) --rm -v <model_repository_path>:/models:rw openvino/model_server:latest-gpu --pull --source_model "unsloth/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-GGUF" --model_repository_path /models --model_name unsloth/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-GGUF --task text_generation --gguf_filename Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-Q4_K_M.gguf

On Baremetal Host

Required: OpenVINO Model Server package - see deployment instructions for details.

ovms --pull --source_model "unsloth/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-GGUF" --model_repository_path /models --model_name unsloth/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-GGUF --task text_generation --gguf_filename Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-Q4_K_M.gguf

Pulling models outside OpenVINO organization#

It is possible to pull models outside of OpenVINO organization.

Example for pulling Echo9Zulu/phi-4-int4_asym-awq-ov:

ovms --pull --source_model Echo9Zulu/phi-4-int4_asym-awq-ov --model_repository_path /models --model_name phi-4-int4_asym-awq-ov --target_device CPU --task text_generation 

Note: These models aren’t tested properly and their accuracy or performance may be low.

Check parameters page for detailed descriptions of configuration options and parameter usage.

In case you want to setup model and start server in one step, follow instructions.

Note: When using pull mode you need both read and write access rights to models repository.

Pulling Image Generation Models with LoRA Adapters#

For image generation tasks, you can additionally specify LoRA adapters to be downloaded alongside the base model using the --source_loras parameter:

ovms --rest_port 8000 \
  --model_repository_path /models/ \
  --task image_generation \
  --source_model stabilityai/stable-diffusion-xl-base-1.0 \
  --source_loras "xray=DoctorDiffusion/doctor-diffusion-s-xray-xl-lora@DD-xray-v1.safetensors,ukiyo=KappaNeuro/ukiyo-e-art@Ukiyo-e Art.safetensors"

The --source_loras format is a comma-separated list of alias=source[:alpha] entries. Supported source types:

HuggingFace repository: alias=org/repo or alias=org/repo@filename.safetensors
Direct URL: alias=https://url/to/file.safetensors
Local file (Linux): alias=/path/to/file.safetensors
Local file (Windows): alias=C:\path\to\file.safetensors
Relative local file: alias=./path/to/file.safetensors

Each adapter can optionally specify a default alpha weight: alias=source:0.7 (default: 1.0).

For more details, see the LoRA Adapters documentation.

Resuming an interrupted pull#

Pulling Generative AI models from Hugging Face often involves transferring multi-gigabyte LFS files (e.g. openvino_model.bin). To make this robust against network errors and operator interventions, OVMS pull mode persists the in-progress download state on disk and resumes from where it stopped on the next --pull invocation. No extra flags are required — simply re-run the same --pull command against the same --model_repository_path and OVMS will continue any partially downloaded LFS files instead of starting from scratch.

What is persisted#

While a pull is in flight, OVMS / libgit2 keeps the following on disk under your --model_repository_path:

Artifact	Purpose
`<repo>.lfswip` (sibling of the repository directory)	Marker file indicating that an LFS download is work-in-progress.
`<file>.lfs_part` (next to each LFS-tracked file)	Partially downloaded LFS object. The next `--pull` resumes the HTTP transfer from the existing byte offset.
LFS pointer file (in place of the final binary)	Standard `version https://git-lfs.github.com/spec/v1` pointer that allows libgit2 to identify which OID still needs to be fetched.

When the LFS transfer for a file completes successfully, the .lfs_part file is renamed to its final name and the pointer is replaced. Once all LFS files are present, the .lfswip marker is removed and the repository is considered clean.

Resume after Ctrl+C / SIGINT (graceful cancel)#

Pressing Ctrl+C (or sending SIGINT / SIGTERM on Linux, CTRL_BREAK_EVENT on Windows) while ovms --pull is running triggers a graceful cancellation:

OVMS marks the server as shutting down.
libgit2 clone / LFS callbacks observe the cancellation request and abort the in-flight HTTP transfer cleanly.
The process exits with a non-zero status code. Partial .lfs_part files and the .lfswip marker are left on disk on purpose.
Re-running the same --pull command resumes each partial file using HTTP Range requests and finishes the remaining downloads.

This is the recommended way to interrupt a pull — it avoids corrupted partial data and lets you resume without re-downloading completed files.

Resume after process termination (forced kill / power loss)#

If the OVMS process is killed forcibly (SIGKILL, OOM killer, container stop with no grace period, host crash, power loss), the on-disk state is the same as for a graceful cancel: any LFS files that were in flight remain as <file>.lfs_part plus an LFS pointer file, and the .lfswip marker is still present. The next --pull invocation:

Detects the .lfswip marker and the leftover LFS pointer files.
For each affected file, opens an HTTP Range request starting at the current size of the corresponding .lfs_part file and continues the transfer.
Cleans up the marker once every LFS file is fully present.

If a forced termination corrupted an in-progress write, the resumed transfer will detect the size/hash mismatch on completion and the file will be re-downloaded on a subsequent attempt. User-edited or user-deleted files are not restored automatically — once a --pull has finished successfully, OVMS treats the local repository as authoritative and will not overwrite or re-fetch files that you have modified or removed. To force OVMS to re-download a model from scratch, pass --overwrite_models on the next --pull invocation; the existing model directory under --model_repository_path will be replaced with a fresh download.

Tuning resume behavior#

The number of resume attempts per LFS file and the interval between them can be tuned via environment variables read once on process start (defaults shown):

Environment variable	Default	Description
`GIT_LFS_RESUME_ATTEMPTS`	`5`	Maximum number of resume attempts for a single LFS file before giving up. `0` disables resume.
`GIT_LFS_RESUME_INTERVAL_SECONDS`	`10`	Delay between consecutive resume attempts.

On startup OVMS logs the resolved configuration, e.g.:

[INFO] LFS resume: attempts=5 interval=10 s

Note: Resume relies on the remote server honoring HTTP Range requests. Hugging Face Hub supports this by default; private mirrors must allow ranged GETs for resume to work.