Skip to main content

Object Storage with MinIO

Configure and install MinIO object storage on large-scale private cloud infrastructure and Equinix Metal.

Object Storage with MinIO

MinIO is a high performance distributed object storage server, designed for large-scale private cloud infrastructure. MinIO is designed in a cloud-native manner to scale sustainably in multi-tenant environments.

Installing & Configuring MinIO

You can install the MinIO server by compiling the source code or via a binary file. For this guide, we will make use of the binary and we will be deploying on a server running Ubuntu 18.04.

First, if you haven't updated the package database recently, update it now:

apt get update

Next, download the MinIO server binary:

curl -O https://dl.minio.io/server/minio/release/linux-amd64/minio

You will need to change permissions for the file you just downloaded to make it executable:

chmod +x minio

Next, the binary will need to be relocated to the /usr/local/bin directory where the startup script expects to find it. We'll be downloading the startup script below. It is also not suggested to run the MinIO server as root. Instead, we'll create a user called minio-user.

This is done by running:

useradd -r minio-user -s /sbin/nologin

Dependent upon your particular setup, the creation of the storage directory may vary.

The storage directory for MinIO will need to have its permissions adjusted to allow minio-user access.

chown minio-user:minio-user /path/to/storage

Next up, we will need to create a MinIO configuration file. Typically, the most common location for this file is in /etc/. Make sure this location has the same permissions as the storage directory for minio-user.

An example of the MinIO configuration:

MINIO_ACCESS_KEY="minio"
MINIO_VOLUMES="/usr/local/share/minio/"
MINIO_OPTS="-C /etc/minio --address your_server_ip:9000"
MINIO_SECRET_KEY="miniostorage"
  • MINIO_ACCESS_KEY: a key set to access UI or the bucket from a remote application

  • MINIO_VOLUMES: is the directory (path) where your files will are stored

  • MINIO_OPTS: is multifaceted, it can include the working path of MinIO configuration, options of how to access the UI of MinIO

  • MINIO_SECRET_KEY: this is similar to that of the access key. it should not be the same key you utilized for the access key.

MinIO Startup Script

To allow MinIO to startup at reboot, a startup script is required. Download the descriptor file:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/minio/minio-service/master/linux-systemd/minio.service

Double check the contents of this file. Once you are satisified with the content, the descriptor file will then need to be moved to /etc/systemd/system.

To ensure systemd knows of the new startup script, you'll need to reload the systemd units:

systemctl daemon-reload

Also, to ensure that the MinIO Server automatically starts at reboot, add it to systemctl:

systemctl enable minio

This completes the install, and setup process for MinIO. You should now be able to start the service!

systemctl start minio

Double check that is in fact running:

systemctl status minio

You should see an output similar to:

 minio.service - MinIO
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/minio.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2020-04-09 15:31:45 UTC; 1 day 3h ago
     Docs: https://docs.min.io
 Main PID: 2757 (minio)
    Tasks: 20 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/minio.service
           └─2757 /usr/local/bin/minio server -C /etc/minio --address s3.example.com:443 /usr/local/minio/data

More information about MinIO is available at the project’s documentation website & information about how to secure your MinIO Server can be found at Let's Encrypt.

Last updated

March 14, 2024

Category

Tagged

Technical
Subscribe to our newsletter

A monthly digest of the latest news, articles, and resources.