Install MinIO AIStor

MinIO AIStor is licensed under the MinIO Software License. Production clusters require an active license.

These guides deploy MinIO AIStor onto Linux infrastructure. Complete one of them first, then enable network encryption and server-side encryption.

Before you deploy, review the MinIO AIStor Release Notes to find the latest stable release and any version-specific considerations. Each release includes a software bill of materials (SBOM) and dependency artifacts for compliance auditing. See Release Artifacts for details.

Linux kernel requirements

MinIO strongly recommends Linux kernel 6.8 or later for all production clusters. Kernel 6.8 and later improves performance in four ways that matter for high-throughput object storage:

• Faster network stack for distributed workloads
• Higher NVMe and direct I/O throughput
• Online XFS repair
• Less memory fragmentation and lower scheduling latency

MinIO evaluates older kernel versions case by case for existing clusters that cannot upgrade yet. Request an architecture review through SUBNET before you deploy on a kernel earlier than 6.8.

Recommended Linux distributions

Production hardware

When you select hardware for MinIO AIStor, consider these factors:

• How much data you store at launch, and how much you expect to add over the next two years, to size total drive capacity
• The number of objects, grouped by average object size
• How long you retain data, in years
• The number of sites
• The number of buckets
• How many drive and node failures you must tolerate

No single formula fits every situation. Weigh these factors against your own needs, then open an architecture review in SUBNET to work through them with MinIO engineers and field architects.

Hardware consistency

MinIO AIStor, like any distributed system, performs best when every node in a server pool has an identical configuration. Match the hardware (CPU, memory, motherboard, storage adapters) and the software (operating system, kernel settings, system services) across all nodes in a pool.

Performance can become unpredictable when nodes differ.

Checklist

This checklist follows MinIO’s Recommended Configuration for production clusters. Treat it as a baseline. It does not replace SUBNET Performance Diagnostics, Architecture Reviews, and direct-to-engineering support.

MinIO AIStor can run on less than the recommended hardware, but the cost savings come at the risk of lower reliability, lower performance, or reduced functionality.

Optimizing performance

These three areas have the greatest impact on MinIO AIStor performance, in order of importance. Secure the components in each area before you address other hardware resources, such as compute constraints.

Additional recommendations

For other requirements, including for networking and memory, see recommended and system requirements.

For reviewing your existing hardware with tests, see recommended hardware tests.