Install MinIO AIStor on Ubuntu Server

MinIO AIStor is licensed under the MinIO Software License. An active license is required for production deployments.

This procedure downloads and installs the AIStor Server onto bare-metal hosts running Ubuntu Server Linux.

Review the Hardware and System Requirements to ensure your target infrastructure meets our guidance. You can also open a SUBNET issue to request an architecture review or assistance during deployment.

MinIO strongly recommends using only Long-Term Support (LTS) Ubuntu releases in the LTS standard security maintenance lifecycle with a Linux Kernel version 6.8 or later, such as Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. See Linux Kernel Requirements for recommended distributions and performance details.

Procedure

Repeat these steps for each node in the deployment.

1. Download the AIStor Server .deb package

   MinIO AIStor provides a .deb package for the AMD64 and ARM64 architectures. Download the package that reflects the host system’s architecture:

   AMD64ARM64

   curl --progress-bar -L dl.min.io/aistor/minio/release/linux-amd64/minio.deb -o minio.deb
   sudo dpkg -i minio.deb

   curl --progress-bar -L dl.min.io/aistor/minio/release/linux-arm64/minio.deb -o minio.deb
   sudo dpkg -i minio.deb

   You can validate the installation by running minio --version.

   The DEB package creates a new systemd unit file for the AIStor Server. Run systemctl status minio to validate the installation of the systemd file.

2. Retrieve your license file

   Log into SUBNET and select the License button in the Deployments view.

   

   Create the /opt/minio directory if it does not exist. Download the file to /opt/minio/minio.license and set the ownership to minio-user:

   sudo mkdir /opt/minio
   sudo touch /opt/minio/minio.license
   sudo chown -R minio-user:minio-user /opt/minio

   Edit the minio.license file and replace its contents with the license string from the previous step.

   License Management

   Starting with AIStor Server RELEASE.2025-12-20T04-58-37Z, deployments can start without a license in offline mode. All S3 operations are blocked until you install a valid license, but the Admin API and Console remain accessible.

   After deployment starts, you can register with SUBNET and apply your license:

   mc license register ALIAS --license /path/to/minio.license

   For license renewal, expiration details, and mode restrictions, see Licenses.

3. Review the environment file

   The DEB package installs an environment file to /etc/default/minio automatically. Review the contents of the file and modify as directed based on your preferred topology.

   Free tier license restriction

   MinIO AIStor minio.RELEASE.2025-12-20T04-58-37Z or later adds support for MinIO AIStor Free licenses. Clusters using the MinIO AIStor Free license support only single-node single-drive and single-node multi-drive patterns.

   Multi-Node Multi-DriveSingle-Node Multi-DriveSingle-Node Single-Drive

   # Copy the value of your SUBNET license below
   
   MINIO_LICENSE="/opt/minio/minio.license"
   
   # Define the expected topology of the deployment
   #
   # The following is a multi-node multi-drive "distributed" deployment pattern
   # that supports high performance, high availability, and large storage requirements
   #
   # MinIO recommends distributed topologies for production workloads.
   #
   # The command includes the port that each Server listens on
   # (default 9000).
   
   MINIO_VOLUMES="http://minio-{1...4}.example.net:9000/mnt/drive-{1...4}/minio"
   

   # Copy the value of your SUBNET license below
   
   MINIO_LICENSE="/opt/minio/minio.license"
   
   # Define the expected topology of the deployment
   #
   # The following is a single-node multi-drive deployment pattern
   # appropriate for storage workloads where distributed performance and
   # high availability are not requirements.
   #
   # The command includes the port that each Server listens on
   # (default 9000).
   
   MINIO_VOLUMES="http://aistor.example.net:9000/mnt/drive-{1...4}/minio"

   # Copy the value of your SUBNET license below
   
   MINIO_LICENSE="/opt/minio/minio.license"
   
   # Define the expected topology of the deployment
   #
   # The following is a single-node single-drive deployment pattern
   # appropriate for workloads where distributed performance and
   # high availability are not requirements.
   #
   # Single-Node Single-Drive Startup
   MINIO_VOLUMES="/mnt/drive-1/minio"
   

   For distributed deployments, all nodes must have matching /etc/default/minio environment files. Use a utility such as shasum -a 256 /etc/default/minio on each node to verify an exact match across all nodes.

4. Ensure MinIO AIStor has ownership of associated folders and drives.

   The minio.service file runs as the minio-user user and group by default. This user must have read/write/access permissions to all files, folders, and drive paths provided to the server process. The DEB package installation creates the user and group by default.

   Use the chown and chmod commands to ensure the minio-user user and group have the necessary ownership and access permissions. For example:

   chown -R minio-user:minio-user /opt/minio/
   
   # Change this to reflect the series of volumes specified
   # to the MINIO_VOLUMES environment variable
   #
   # This assumes you have already mounted the drives at the given path
   chown -R minio-user:minio-user /mnt/drive-{1..4}
   

   Repeat this step for each node in the deployment.

5. Enable and start the MinIO AIStor deployment.

   Use systemctl enable minio.service and systemctl start minio to enable and start the server process respectively.

   You can track the status of the startup using journalctl -u minio on each node.

   On successful startup, each minio process emits output to the log resembling the following:

   MinIO Enterprise AIStor Server
   Copyright: 2015-2024 MinIO, Inc.
   Version: RELEASE.YYYY-MM-DDTHH-SS-mmZ (go1.22.4 linux/amd64)
   
   API: https://minio-1.example.net:9000 https://203.0.113.10:9000 https://127.0.0.1:9000
       RootUser: minioadmin
       RootPass: minioadmin
   
   WebUI: https://minio-1.example.net:9001 https://203.0.113.10:9001 https://127.0.0.1:9001
       RootUser: minioadmin
       RootPass: minioadmin
   
   CLI: https://docs.min.io/aistor/reference/cli/#quickstart
       $ mc alias set 'myaistor' 'https://minio-1.example.net:9000' 'minioadmin' 'minioadmin'
   
   Docs: https://docs.min.io/aistor/
   Status:         4 Online, 0 Offline.

   The MinIO AIStor minio service does not automatically start on host reboot. You must use systemctl enable minio.service to start the process as part of the host boot.

6. Install the AIStor Client (mc)

   AMD64ARM64

   wget https://dl.min.io/aistor/mc/release/linux-amd64/mc -O mc
   chmod +x ./mc
   mv ./mc /usr/local/bin/
   
   mc --version

   wget https://dl.min.io/aistor/mc/release/linux-arm64/mc -O mc
   chmod +x ./mc
   mv ./mc /usr/local/bin
   
   mc --version

7. Connect to the Deployment

   You can connect to the deployment using the built-in Console UI or the AIStor Client (mc).

   Console UICLI

   Open your browser to the hostname and port of any node in the deployment. The WebUI output from the previous step indicates which hostnames and ports the minio process listens on.

   Log in using the default minioadmin:minioadmin username and password.

   1. Create a new alias for the MinIO AIStor server:

      mc alias set myaistor http://aistor.example.net:9000 minioadmin minioadmin

      Replace the URL with the hostname of any node in the deployment or a load balancer, reverse proxy, or similar network control plane component managing connections to the deployment.

   2. Create a bucket and copy a file to that bucket:

      mc mb myaistor/data
      mc cp ~/somefile.txt myaistor/data