OVMS service starts and then shuts down complaining about config file

[Tre-vor-W]

Describe the bug
OVMS service starts and then shuts down complaining about config file - failed to open fro debug read

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Steps to prepare models repository '...'
2. OVMS launch command '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\ovms.exe" --rest_port 8000 --config_path c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models --log_level INFO --log_path "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\ovms_server.log"'
3. Client command (additionally client code if not using official client or demo) '....'
4. See error
5. [2026-04-05 20:47:18.393][9244][serving][info][server.cpp:88] OpenVINO Model Server 2025.4.1.7bc56cf8
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.393][9244][serving][info][server.cpp:89] OpenVINO backend 2025.4.1.0rc1
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.394][9244][serving][info][pythoninterpretermodule.cpp:37] PythonInterpreterModule starting
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.459][9244][serving][info][pythoninterpretermodule.cpp:50] PythonInterpreterModule started
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.700][9244][modelmanager][info][modelmanager.cpp:156] Available devices for Open VINO: CPU, GPU
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.702][9244][serving][info][capimodule.cpp:40] C-APIModule starting
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.702][9244][serving][info][capimodule.cpp:42] C-APIModule started
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.702][9244][serving][info][grpcservermodule.cpp:110] GRPCServerModule starting
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.702][9244][serving][info][grpcservermodule.cpp:114] GRPCServerModule started
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.703][9244][serving][info][grpcservermodule.cpp:115] Port was not set. GRPC server will not be started.
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.703][9244][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:35] HTTPServerModule starting
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.703][9244][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:39] Will start 18 REST workers
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.704][6552][serving][info][drogon_http_server.cpp:137] Binding REST server to address: 0.0.0.0:8000
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.765][9244][serving][info][drogon_http_server.cpp:167] REST server listening on port 8000 with 18 unary threads and 18 streaming threads
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.765][9244][serving][info][http_server.cpp:248] API key not provided via --api_key_file or API_KEY environment variable. Authentication will be disabled.
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.768][9244][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:52] HTTPServerModule started
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.768][9244][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:53] Started REST server at 0.0.0.0:8000
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.769][9244][serving][info][servablemanagermodule.cpp:51] ServableManagerModule starting
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.769][9244][serving][error][schema.cpp:524] Failed to open file for debug-read on Windows
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.769][9244][serving][error][schema.cpp:570] Configuration file is invalid c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.781][9244][serving][error][schema.cpp:524] Failed to open file for debug-read on Windows
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.782][9244][serving][error][schema.cpp:570] Configuration file is invalid c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.797][9244][serving][error][schema.cpp:524] Failed to open file for debug-read on Windows
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.798][9244][serving][error][schema.cpp:570] Configuration file is invalid c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.813][9244][modelmanager][error][modelmanager.cpp:184] Couldn't start model manager
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.814][9244][serving][error][servablemanagermodule.cpp:58] ovms::ModelManager::Start() Error: Configuration file not found or cannot open
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.814][9244][serving][info][grpcservermodule.cpp:201] GRPCServerModule shutting down
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.814][9244][serving][info][grpcservermodule.cpp:211] GRPCServerModule shutdown
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.814][9244][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:59] HTTPServerModule shutting down
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.820][9244][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:64] Shutdown HTTP server
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.820][9244][serving][info][servablemanagermodule.cpp:65] ServableManagerModule shutting down
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.826][9244][serving][info][servablemanagermodule.cpp:71] ServableManagerModule shutdown
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.826][9244][serving][info][pythoninterpretermodule.cpp:61] PythonInterpreterModule shutting down
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.826][9244][serving][info][pythoninterpretermodule.cpp:65] PythonInterpreterModule shutdown
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.831][9244][serving][info][capimodule.cpp:50] C-APIModule shutting down
   [2026-04-05 20:47:18.832][9244][serving][info][capimodule.cpp:52] C-APIModule shutdown

Expected behavior
service should start and continue running

Logs
Logs from OVMS, ideally with --log_level DEBUG. Logs from client.
C:\Windows\System32>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\ovms.exe" --rest_port 8000 --config_path c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models --log_level DEBUG --log_path "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\ovms_server.log"
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.844][5984][serving][info][server.cpp:88] OpenVINO Model Server 2025.4.1.7bc56cf8
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.844][5984][serving][info][server.cpp:89] OpenVINO backend 2025.4.1.0rc1
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.845][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:90] CLI parameters passed to ovms server
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.845][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:112] config_path: c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.845][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:114] gRPC port: 0
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.846][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:115] REST port: 8000
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.846][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:116] gRPC bind address: 0.0.0.0
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.846][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:117] REST bind address: 0.0.0.0
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.846][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:118] REST workers: 18
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.846][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:119] gRPC workers: 1
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.846][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:120] gRPC channel arguments:
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.846][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:121] log level: DEBUG
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.846][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:122] log path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\ovms_server.log
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.846][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:124] file system poll wait milliseconds: 1000
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.847][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:125] sequence cleaner poll wait minutes: 5
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.847][5984][serving][debug][server.cpp:126] model_repository_path:
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.847][5984][serving][info][pythoninterpretermodule.cpp:37] PythonInterpreterModule starting
Python version:
3.12.10 (tags/v3.12.10:0cc8128, Apr 8 2025, 12:21:36) [MSC v.1943 64 bit (AMD64)]
Python sys.path output:
['', 'c:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\python\python312', 'c:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\python', 'c:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\python\Scripts', 'c:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\python\Lib\site-packages']
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.912][5984][serving][debug][python_backend.cpp:46] Creating python backend
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.915][5984][serving][info][pythoninterpretermodule.cpp:50] PythonInterpreterModule started
[2026-04-05 21:03:57.917][5984][modelmanager][debug][mediapipefactory.cpp:52] Registered Calculators: AddHeaderCalculator, AlignmentPointsRectsCalculator, AnnotationOverlayCalculator, AnomalyCalculator, AnomalySerializationCalculator, AssociationNormRectCalculator, BeginLoopDetectionCalculator, BeginLoopFloatCalculator, BeginLoopGpuBufferCalculator, BeginLoopImageCalculator, BeginLoopImageFrameCalculator, BeginLoopIntCalculator, BeginLoopMatrixCalculator, BeginLoopMatrixVectorCalculator, BeginLoopModelApiDetectionCalculator, BeginLoopNormalizedLandmarkListVectorCalculator, BeginLoopNormalizedRectCalculator, BeginLoopRectanglePredictionCalculator, BeginLoopStringCalculator, BeginLoopTensorCalculator, BeginLoopUint64tCalculator, BoxDetectorCalculator, BoxTrackerCalculator, CallbackCalculator, CallbackPacketCalculator, CallbackWithHeaderCalculator, ClassificationCalculator, ClassificationListVectorHasMinSizeCalculator, ClassificationListVectorSizeCalculator, ClassificationSerializationCalculator, ClipDetectionVectorSizeCalculator, ClipNormalizedRectVectorSizeCalculator, ColorConvertCalculator, ConcatenateBoolVectorCalculator, ConcatenateClassificationListCalculator, ConcatenateClassificationListVectorCalculator, ConcatenateDetectionVectorCalculator, ConcatenateFloatVectorCalculator, ConcatenateImageVectorCalculator, ConcatenateInt32VectorCalculator, ConcatenateJointListCalculator, ConcatenateLandmarListVectorCalculator, ConcatenateLandmarkListCalculator, ConcatenateLandmarkListVectorCalculator, ConcatenateLandmarkVectorCalculator, ConcatenateNormalizedLandmarkListCalculator, ConcatenateNormalizedLandmarkListVectorCalculator, ConcatenateRenderDataVectorCalculator, ConcatenateStringVectorCalculator, ConcatenateTensorVectorCalculator, ConcatenateTfLiteTensorVectorCalculator, ConcatenateUInt64VectorCalculator, ConstantSidePacketCalculator, CountingSourceCalculator, CropCalculator, DefaultSidePacketCalculator, DequantizeByteArrayCalculator, DetectionCalculator, DetectionClassificationCombinerCalculator, DetectionClassificationResultCalculator, DetectionClassificationSerializationCalculator, DetectionExtractionCalculator, DetectionLabelIdToTextCalculator, DetectionLetterboxRemovalCalculator, DetectionProjectionCalculator, DetectionSegmentationCombinerCalculator, DetectionSegmentationResultCalculator, DetectionSegmentationSerializationCalculator, DetectionSerializationCalculator, DetectionsToRectsCalculator, DetectionsToRenderDataCalculator, EmbeddingsCalculatorOV, EmptyLabelCalculator, EmptyLabelClassificationCalculator, EmptyLabelDetectionCalculator, EmptyLabelRotatedDetectionCalculator, EmptyLabelSegmentationCalculator, EndLoopAffineMatrixCalculator, EndLoopBooleanCalculator, EndLoopClassificationListCalculator, EndLoopDetectionCalculator, EndLoopFloatCalculator, EndLoopGpuBufferCalculator, EndLoopImageCalculator, EndLoopImageFrameCalculator, EndLoopImageSizeCalculator, EndLoopLandmarkListVectorCalculator, EndLoopMatrixCalculator, EndLoopModelApiDetectionClassificationCalculator, EndLoopModelApiDetectionSegmentationCalculator, EndLoopNormalizedLandmarkListVectorCalculator, EndLoopNormalizedRectCalculator, EndLoopPolygonPredictionsCalculator, EndLoopRectanglePredictionsCalculator, EndLoopRenderDataCalculator, EndLoopTensorCalculator, EndLoopTfLiteTensorCalculator, FaceLandmarksToRenderDataCalculator, FeatureDetectorCalculator, FlowLimiterCalculator, FlowPackagerCalculator, FlowToImageCalculator, FromImageCalculator, GateCalculator, GetClassificationListVectorItemCalculator, GetDetectionVectorItemCalculator, GetLandmarkListVectorItemCalculator, GetNormalizedLandmarkListVectorItemCalculator, GetNormalizedRectVectorItemCalculator, GetRectVectorItemCalculator, GraphProfileCalculator, HandDetectionsFromPoseToRectsCalculator, HandLandmarksToRectCalculator, HttpLLMCalculator, HttpSerializationCalculator, ImageCloneCalculator, ImageCroppingCalculator, ImageGenCalculator, ImagePropertiesCalculator, ImageToTensorCalculator, ImageTransformationCalculator, ImmediateMuxCalculator, InferenceCalculatorCpu, InstanceSegmentationCalculator, InverseMatrixCalculator, IrisToRenderDataCalculator, KeypointDetectionCalculator, LandmarkLetterboxRemovalCalculator, LandmarkListVectorSizeCalculator, LandmarkProjectionCalculator, LandmarkVisibilityCalculator, LandmarksRefinementCalculator, LandmarksSmoothingCalculator, LandmarksToDetectionCalculator, LandmarksToRenderDataCalculator, MakePairCalculator, MatrixMultiplyCalculator, MatrixSubtractCalculator, MatrixToVectorCalculator, MediaPipeInternalSidePacketToPacketStreamCalculator, MergeCalculator, MergeDetectionsToVectorCalculator, MergeGpuBuffersToVectorCalculator, MergeImagesToVectorCalculator, ModelInferHttpRequestCalculator, ModelInferRequestImageCalculator, MotionAnalysisCalculator, MuxCalculator, NonMaxSuppressionCalculator, NonZeroCalculator, NormalizedLandmarkListVectorHasMinSizeCalculator, NormalizedRectVectorHasMinSizeCalculator, OpenCvEncodedImageToImageFrameCalculator, OpenCvImageEncoderCalculator, OpenCvPutTextCalculator, OpenCvVideoDecoderCalculator, OpenCvVideoEncoderCalculator, OpenVINOConverterCalculator, OpenVINOInferenceAdapterCalculator, OpenVINOInferenceCalculator, OpenVINOModelServerSessionCalculator, OpenVINOTensorsToClassificationCalculator, OpenVINOTensorsToDetectionsCalculator, OverlayCalculator, PacketGeneratorWrapperCalculator, PacketInnerJoinCalculator, PacketPresenceCalculator, PacketResamplerCalculator, PacketSequencerCalculator, PacketThinnerCalculator, PassThroughCalculator, PreviousLoopbackCalculator, PyTensorOvTensorConverterCalculator, PythonExecutorCalculator, QuantizeFloatVectorCalculator, RectToRenderDataCalculator, RectToRenderScaleCalculator, RectTransformationCalculator, RefineLandmarksFromHeatmapCalculator, RerankCalculator, RerankCalculatorOV, ResourceProviderCalculator, RoiTrackingCalculator, RotatedDetectionCalculator, RotatedDetectionSerializationCalculator, RoundRobinDemuxCalculator, S2tCalculator, SegmentationCalculator, SegmentationSerializationCalculator, SegmentationSmoothingCalculator, SequenceShiftCalculator, SerializationCalculator, SetLandmarkVisibilityCalculator, SidePacketToStreamCalculator, SplitAffineMatrixVectorCalculator, SplitClassificationListVectorCalculator, SplitDetectionVectorCalculator, SplitFloatVectorCalculator, SplitImageVectorCalculator, SplitJointListCalculator, SplitLandmarkListCalculator, SplitLandmarkVectorCalculator, SplitMatrixVectorCalculator, SplitNormalizedLandmarkListCalculator, SplitNormalizedLandmarkListVectorCalculator, SplitNormalizedRectVectorCalculator, SplitTensorVectorCalculator, SplitTfLiteTensorVectorCalculator, SplitUint64tVectorCalculator, SsdAnchorsCalculator, StreamToSidePacketCalculator, StringToInt32Calculator, StringToInt64Calculator, StringToIntCalculator, StringToUint32Calculator, StringToUint64Calculator, StringToUintCalculator, SwitchDemuxCalculator, SwitchMuxCalculator, T2sCalculator, TensorsToClassificationCalculator, TensorsToDetectionsCalculator, TensorsToFloatsCalculator, TensorsToLandmarksCalculator, TensorsToSegmentationCalculator, TfLiteConverterCalculator, TfLiteCustomOpResolverCalculator, TfLiteInferenceCalculator, TfLiteModelCalculator, TfLiteTensorsToDetectionsCalculator, TfLiteTensorsToFloatsCalculator, TfLiteTensorsToLandmarksCalculator, ThresholdingCalculator, ToImageCalculator, TrackedDetectionManagerCalculator, UpdateFaceLandmarksCalculator, VideoPreStreamCalculator, VisibilityCopyCalculator, VisibilitySmoothingCalculator, WarpAffineCalculator, WarpAffineCalculatorCpu, WorldLandmarkProjectionCalculator

[2026-04-05 21:03:57.917][5984][modelmanager][debug][mediapipefactory.cpp:52] Registered Subgraphs: FaceDetection, FaceDetectionFrontDetectionToRoi, FaceDetectionFrontDetectionsToRoi, FaceDetectionShortRange, FaceDetectionShortRangeByRoiCpu, FaceDetectionShortRangeCpu, FaceLandmarkCpu, FaceLandmarkFrontCpu, FaceLandmarkLandmarksToRoi, FaceLandmarksFromPoseCpu, FaceLandmarksFromPoseToRecropRoi, FaceLandmarksModelLoader, FaceLandmarksToRoi, FaceTracking, HandLandmarkCpu, HandLandmarkModelLoader, HandLandmarksFromPoseCpu, HandLandmarksFromPoseToRecropRoi, HandLandmarksLeftAndRightCpu, HandLandmarksToRoi, HandRecropByRoiCpu, HandTracking, HandVisibilityFromHandLandmarksFromPose, HandWristForPose, HolisticLandmarkCpu, HolisticTrackingToRenderData, InferenceCalculator, IrisLandmarkCpu, IrisLandmarkLandmarksToRoi, IrisLandmarkLeftAndRightCpu, IrisRendererCpu, PoseDetectionCpu, PoseDetectionToRoi, PoseLandmarkByRoiCpu, PoseLandmarkCpu, PoseLandmarkFiltering, PoseLandmarkModelLoader, PoseLandmarksAndSegmentationInverseProjection, PoseLandmarksToRoi, PoseSegmentationFiltering, SwitchContainer, TensorsToFaceLandmarks, TensorsToFaceLandmarksWithAttention, TensorsToPoseLandmarksAndSegmentation

[2026-04-05 21:03:57.918][5984][modelmanager][debug][mediapipefactory.cpp:52] Registered InputStreamHandlers: BarrierInputStreamHandler, DefaultInputStreamHandler, EarlyCloseInputStreamHandler, FixedSizeInputStreamHandler, ImmediateInputStreamHandler, MuxInputStreamHandler, SyncSetInputStreamHandler, TimestampAlignInputStreamHandler

[2026-04-05 21:03:57.918][5984][modelmanager][debug][mediapipefactory.cpp:52] Registered OutputStreamHandlers: InOrderOutputStreamHandler

[2026-04-05 21:03:58.151][5984][modelmanager][info][modelmanager.cpp:156] Available devices for Open VINO: CPU, GPU
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.151][5984][modelmanager][debug][ov_utils.hpp:56] Logging OpenVINO Core plugin: CPU; plugin configuration
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.153][5984][modelmanager][debug][ov_utils.hpp:91] OpenVINO Core plugin: CPU; plugin configuration: { AVAILABLE_DEVICES: , CPU_DENORMALS_OPTIMIZATION: NO, CPU_SPARSE_WEIGHTS_DECOMPRESSION_RATE: 1, DEVICE_ARCHITECTURE: intel64, DEVICE_ID: , DEVICE_TYPE: integrated, DYNAMIC_QUANTIZATION_GROUP_SIZE: 32, ENABLE_CPU_PINNING: YES, ENABLE_CPU_RESERVATION: NO, ENABLE_HYPER_THREADING: YES, ENABLE_TENSOR_PARALLEL: NO, ENABLE_WEIGHTLESS: NO, EXECUTION_DEVICES: CPU, EXECUTION_MODE_HINT: PERFORMANCE, FULL_DEVICE_NAME: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650 v4 @ 2.20GHz, INFERENCE_NUM_THREADS: 0, INFERENCE_PRECISION_HINT: f32, KEY_CACHE_GROUP_SIZE: 0, KEY_CACHE_PRECISION: u8, KV_CACHE_PRECISION: u8, LOG_LEVEL: LOG_NONE, MODEL_DISTRIBUTION_POLICY: , NUM_STREAMS: 1, OPTIMIZATION_CAPABILITIES: FP32 INT8 BIN EXPORT_IMPORT, PERFORMANCE_HINT: LATENCY, PERFORMANCE_HINT_NUM_REQUESTS: 0, PERF_COUNT: NO, RANGE_FOR_ASYNC_INFER_REQUESTS: 1 1 1, RANGE_FOR_STREAMS: 1 18, SCHEDULING_CORE_TYPE: ANY_CORE, VALUE_CACHE_GROUP_SIZE: 0, VALUE_CACHE_PRECISION: u8, WEIGHTS_PATH: }
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.153][5984][modelmanager][debug][ov_utils.hpp:56] Logging OpenVINO Core plugin: GPU; plugin configuration
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.154][5984][modelmanager][debug][ov_utils.hpp:91] OpenVINO Core plugin: GPU; plugin configuration: { ACTIVATIONS_SCALE_FACTOR: -1, AVAILABLE_DEVICES: 0, CACHE_DIR: , CACHE_ENCRYPTION_CALLBACKS: , CACHE_MODE: optimize_speed, COMPILATION_NUM_THREADS: 18, CONFIG_FILE: , DEVICE_ARCHITECTURE: GPU: vendor=0x8086 arch=v20.1.0, DEVICE_GOPS: {f16:116736,f32:14592,i8:233472,u8:233472}, DEVICE_ID: 0, DEVICE_LUID: 8981000000000000, DEVICE_PCI_INFO: {domain: 0 bus: 6 device: 0x10 function: 0}, DEVICE_TYPE: discrete, DEVICE_UUID: 86800be2000000000610000000000000, DYNAMIC_QUANTIZATION_GROUP_SIZE: 0, ENABLE_CPU_PINNING: NO, ENABLE_CPU_RESERVATION: NO, EXECUTION_MODE_HINT: PERFORMANCE, FULL_DEVICE_NAME: Intel(R) Arc(TM) B580 Graphics (dGPU), GPU_DEVICE_ID: 0xe20b, GPU_DEVICE_MAX_ALLOC_MEM_SIZE: 12452507648, GPU_DEVICE_TOTAL_MEM_SIZE: 12452507648, GPU_DISABLE_WINOGRAD_CONVOLUTION: NO, GPU_ENABLE_LOOP_UNROLLING: YES, GPU_ENABLE_LORA_OPERATION: YES, GPU_ENABLE_SDPA_OPTIMIZATION: YES, GPU_EXECUTION_UNITS_COUNT: 160, GPU_HOST_TASK_PRIORITY: MEDIUM, GPU_MEMORY_STATISTICS: {cl_mem:0,unknown:0,usm_device:0,usm_host:0,usm_shared:0}, GPU_QUEUE_PRIORITY: MEDIUM, GPU_QUEUE_THROTTLE: MEDIUM, GPU_UARCH_VERSION: 20.1.0, INFERENCE_PRECISION_HINT: f16, KV_CACHE_PRECISION: dynamic, MAX_BATCH_SIZE: 1, MODEL_PRIORITY: MEDIUM, MODEL_PTR: 0000000000000000, NUM_STREAMS: 1, OPTIMAL_BATCH_SIZE: 1, OPTIMIZATION_CAPABILITIES: FP32 BIN FP16 INT8 GPU_HW_MATMUL GPU_USM_MEMORY EXPORT_IMPORT, PERFORMANCE_HINT: LATENCY, PERFORMANCE_HINT_NUM_REQUESTS: 0, PERF_COUNT: NO, RANGE_FOR_ASYNC_INFER_REQUESTS: 1 2 1, RANGE_FOR_STREAMS: 1 2, WEIGHTS_PATH: }
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.154][5984][serving][info][capimodule.cpp:40] C-APIModule starting
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.155][5984][serving][info][capimodule.cpp:42] C-APIModule started
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.155][5984][serving][info][grpcservermodule.cpp:110] GRPCServerModule starting
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.155][5984][serving][info][grpcservermodule.cpp:114] GRPCServerModule started
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.155][5984][serving][info][grpcservermodule.cpp:115] Port was not set. GRPC server will not be started.
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.155][5984][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:35] HTTPServerModule starting
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.155][5984][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:39] Will start 18 REST workers
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.155][5984][serving][debug][drogon_http_server.cpp:41] Starting http thread pool for streaming (18 threads)
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.156][5984][serving][debug][drogon_http_server.cpp:43] Thread pool started
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.156][5984][serving][debug][drogon_http_server.cpp:67] DrogonHttpServer::startAcceptingRequests()
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.157][5984][serving][debug][drogon_http_server.cpp:154] Waiting for drogon to become ready on port 8000...
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.157][2264][serving][debug][drogon_http_server.cpp:103] Starting to listen on port 8000
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.157][2264][serving][debug][drogon_http_server.cpp:104] Thread pool size for unary (18 drogon threads)
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.157][2264][serving][info][drogon_http_server.cpp:137] Binding REST server to address: 0.0.0.0:8000
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.216][5984][serving][debug][drogon_http_server.cpp:163] Drogon run procedure took: 59.506 ms
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.216][5984][serving][info][drogon_http_server.cpp:167] REST server listening on port 8000 with 18 unary threads and 18 streaming threads
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.218][5984][serving][info][http_server.cpp:248] API key not provided via --api_key_file or API_KEY environment variable. Authentication will be disabled.
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.220][5984][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:52] HTTPServerModule started
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.220][5984][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:53] Started REST server at 0.0.0.0:8000
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.220][5984][serving][info][servablemanagermodule.cpp:51] ServableManagerModule starting
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.220][5984][serving][debug][schema.cpp:566] Loading configuration from c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models for: 1 time
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.221][5984][serving][error][schema.cpp:524] Failed to open file for debug-read on Windows
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.221][5984][serving][error][schema.cpp:570] Configuration file is invalid c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.221][5984][serving][debug][schema.cpp:557]
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.232][5984][serving][debug][schema.cpp:566] Loading configuration from c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models for: 2 time
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.234][5984][serving][error][schema.cpp:524] Failed to open file for debug-read on Windows
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.234][5984][serving][error][schema.cpp:570] Configuration file is invalid c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.234][5984][serving][debug][schema.cpp:557]
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.248][5984][serving][debug][schema.cpp:566] Loading configuration from c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models for: 3 time
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.250][5984][serving][error][schema.cpp:524] Failed to open file for debug-read on Windows
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.250][5984][serving][error][schema.cpp:570] Configuration file is invalid c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.250][5984][serving][debug][schema.cpp:557]
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.264][5984][modelmanager][error][modelmanager.cpp:184] Couldn't start model manager
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.266][5984][serving][error][servablemanagermodule.cpp:58] ovms::ModelManager::Start() Error: Configuration file not found or cannot open
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.266][5984][serving][info][grpcservermodule.cpp:201] GRPCServerModule shutting down
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.266][5984][serving][info][grpcservermodule.cpp:211] GRPCServerModule shutdown
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.266][5984][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:59] HTTPServerModule shutting down
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.271][2264][serving][debug][drogon_http_server.cpp:144] drogon::run() exits normally
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.272][5984][serving][info][httpservermodule.cpp:64] Shutdown HTTP server
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.272][5984][serving][info][servablemanagermodule.cpp:65] ServableManagerModule shutting down
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.278][5984][serving][info][servablemanagermodule.cpp:71] ServableManagerModule shutdown
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.278][5984][serving][info][pythoninterpretermodule.cpp:61] PythonInterpreterModule shutting down
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.279][5984][serving][debug][python_backend.cpp:52] Python backend destructor start
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.279][5984][serving][debug][python_backend.cpp:56] Python backend destructor end
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.279][5984][serving][info][pythoninterpretermodule.cpp:65] PythonInterpreterModule shutdown
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.284][5984][serving][info][capimodule.cpp:50] C-APIModule shutting down
[2026-04-05 21:03:58.285][5984][serving][info][capimodule.cpp:52] C-APIModule shutdown

Configuration

1. OVMS version 2025.4.1.7bc56cf8

2. OVMS config.json file

3. {
   "model_config_list": [
   {
   "config": {
   "name": "OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-ov",
   "base_path": "c:\Users\FLO\.lmstudio\models\OpenVINO\Qwen3-8B-int4-ov"
   }
   }
   ]
   }

4. CPU, accelerator's versions if applicable

5. Model repository directory structure

6. Model or publicly available similar model that reproduces the issue

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

[atobiszei]

Hi @Tre-vor-W,
You are passing path to config file directory not to the file itself:
https://github.com/openvinotoolkit/model_server/blob/main/docs/parameters.md?plain=1#L32

[rasapala]

I think the confusion was that if you install service you pass the directory:
install_ovms_service.bat C:\tt2\models\

This will create the ovms start command for the service:
C:\tt2\ovms\ovms.exe --rest_port 8000 --config_path C:\tt2\models\config.json --log_level INFO --log_path C:\tt2\ovms\ovms_server.log

But if you override the default command with your own, then you need to specify the path to config.json file as @atobiszei mentioned.
sc start ovms --rest_port 8000 --config_path c:\models\config.json --log_level DEBUG --log_path c:\tmp\ovms_server.log

In your specific case this would be:
'"C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\ovms.exe" --rest_port 8000 --config_path c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models\config.json --log_level INFO --log_path "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\ovms_server.log"'

[Tre-vor-W]

Hi @Tre-vor-W, You are passing path to config file directory not to the file itself: https://github.com/openvinotoolkit/model_server/blob/main/docs/parameters.md?plain=1#L32

DOH! Thanks @atobiszei

[Tre-vor-W]

I think the confusion was that if you install service you pass the directory: install_ovms_service.bat C:\tt2\models\

This will create the ovms start command for the service: C:\tt2\ovms\ovms.exe --rest_port 8000 --config_path C:\tt2\models\config.json --log_level INFO --log_path C:\tt2\ovms\ovms_server.log

But if you override the default command with your own, then you need to specify the path to config.json file as @atobiszei mentioned. sc start ovms --rest_port 8000 --config_path c:\models\config.json --log_level DEBUG --log_path c:\tmp\ovms_server.log

In your specific case this would be: '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\ovms.exe" --rest_port 8000 --config_path c:\Users\FLO.lmstudio\models\config.json --log_level INFO --log_path "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ovms\ovms_server.log"'

@rasapala Thanks - yes I had to "recreate" the batch file steps - it kept choking part way through running - in hindsight it may have been the double quotes around "C:\Program Files (x86)..." that was the issue - I had to manually escape them to get the binPATH functional.

[Tre-vor-W]

Thanks guys I'll close this as solved