Install MinIO AIStor

The guides in this section provide instructions for deploying MinIO AIStor onto Linux infrastructure. These guides serve as a baseline for the subsequent tutorials for enabling network encryption and server-side-encryption.

Review the MinIO AIStor Release Notes before deploying to identify the latest stable release and any version-specific considerations.

MinIO strongly recommends Linux kernel 6.8 or later for all production deployments. Kernel 6.8+ delivers significant performance improvements critical for high-throughput object storage:

• Improved network stack performance for distributed workloads
• Better NVMe and direct I/O throughput
• XFS online repair capabilities
• Reduced memory fragmentation and scheduling latency

Deployments on older kernel versions may be considered on a case-by-case basis for existing clusters where upgrading is not immediately feasible. These exceptions require an architecture review through SUBNET prior to deployment.

When selecting hardware for your AIStor Server implementation, take into account the following factors:

• Expected amount of data to store at launch and growth in data storage for the next two years for total drive size
• Expected growth in size of data for at least the next two years
• Number of objects by average object size
• Average retention time of data in years
• Number of sites to be deployed
• Number of expected buckets
• Failure tolerance for drives and nodes

There is no exact formula useful for all situations. Consider your own needs for the above and create a architecture review discussion in SUBNET to discuss with MinIO engineers and field architects.

MinIO AIStor, like any distributed system, benefits from selecting identical configurations for all nodes in a given server pool. Ensure a consistent selection of hardware (CPU, memory, motherboard, storage adapters) and software (operating system, kernel settings, system services) across pool nodes.

Deployments may exhibit unpredictable performance if nodes have varying hardware or software configurations.

The following checklist follows MinIO’s Recommended Configuration for production deployments. The provided guidance is intended as a baseline and cannot replace SUBNET Performance Diagnostics, Architecture Reviews, and direct-to-engineering support.

While MinIO AIStor may run on less than the recommended hardware, any potential cost savings come at the risk of decreased reliability, performance, or overall functionality.

The following table shows areas that have the greatest impact on MinIO AIStor performance, listed in order of importance.

Prioritize securing the necessary components for each of these areas before focusing on other hardware resources, such as compute-related constraints.

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

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