Installation

This section documents steps for installing and managing AIStor Volume Manager on Kubernetes infrastructure using a distribution that follows the upstream API and functionality.

MinIO recommends using an in-support, active release of Kubernetes. In general, Kubernetes releases remain supported for up to one year after release.

Volume Manager requires Kubernetes release 1.29 or later.

This procedure assumes that the user interacting with the Kubernetes cluster has authorization to:

• Install Kubernetes operators and associated resources including CustomResourceDefinitions, Statefulsets, and secrets into new or existing namespaces.
• Perform operations as a user that has broad permissions to create resources within multiple namespaces.

1. Download your SUBNET license key

   Log into MinIO SUBNET and access your License Key. From the Deployment view, select License Key to view the key.

   

   Save the value to a secure location for use in a subsequent step.

2. Add the AIStor Helm Repository

   helm repo add minio https://helm.min.io/
   helm repo update
   helm search repo minio
   

3. Install the minio/aistor-volumemanager chart

   helm install directpv minio/aistor-volumemanager --set license="LICENSE-STRING"
   

   Replace LICENSE-STRING with the license as downloaded or copied from SUBNET.

   If you desire custom options, such as nodeSelectors or tolerations, see Advanced installation options.

4. Next Steps

   Once you have installed Volume Manager, you can prepare drives for provisioning. You can then dynamically allocate storage to pods by specifying storageClass: directpv-min-io when constructing the Persistent Volume Claim.

The plugin provides command line tools to manage your Volume Manager installation.

1. Download the Volume Manager plugin for your operating system and architecture from https://dl.min.io/aistor/directpv/release/.

   The plugin is available for amd64, arm64, and ppc64le architectures.

   Move the downloaded file to your system PATH. For example, move the file to /usr/local/bin/ or, for Windows, $HOME\bin\. Refer to the documentation for your operating system for where to place the file.

2. Mark the downloaded plugin as executable.

   chmod a+x /path/to/kubectl-directpv
   

   Executables on macOS

   macOS typically blocks unsigned binaries from running. If the kubectl-directpv command fails, go to System Settings, then Privacy and Security. Scroll to the Security section and select Allow Anyway for the kubectl-directpv application.

You can customize the minio/aistor-volumemanager chart to add the license, limit node selections, or add tolerations. These options are not required.

This chart contains the necessary Kubernetes resources for deploying AIStor Volume Manager resources through the aistor-volumemanager chart.

1. Create a YAML manifest for the chart named aistor-volumemanager-values.yaml.

   For example, to create the file from the command line:

   touch aistor-volumemanager-values.yaml
   

2. Edit the aistor-volumemanager-values.yaml file.

   For example, to edit the file with the CLI text editor nano:

   nano aistor-volumemanager-values.yaml
   

   The example manifest below includes the nodeserver key for controlling how Volume Manager determines eligible nodes. Set nodeSelector to limit Volume Manager to specific nodes in the cluster. Set tolerations to allow Volume Manager to ignore node taints.

   Replace the LICENSE-STRING with your SUBNET license. If you do not wish to set the license in the file, remove the line.

   license: "LICENSE-STRING"
   
   nodeserver:
     nodeSelector: {
     # aistor.min.io/pool-id: "1"
     }
     tolerations: [
     # - key: "node-role.kubernetes.io/control-plane"
     #   operator: "Exists"
     #   effect: "NoSchedule"
     ]
   

3. Install the chart using the custom values.

   helm install directpv minio/aistor-volumemanager \
     -f aistor-volumemanager-values.yaml
   

   If successful, the command outputs a summary of installed resources.

4. Validate the installation.

   Run the following command and check the status of deployed resources.

   kubectl get all -n directpv
   

If seccomp is enabled, load DirectPV seccomp profile on nodes where you want to install Volume Manager. Then, include nodeserver.seccompProfile in your customized Helm chart.

For more information, refer Kubernetes documentation

If apparmor is enabled, load DirectPV apparmor profile on nodes where you want to install Volume Manager. Then, include nodeserver.podAnnotations in your customized Helm chart.

For more information, refer to the Kubernetes documentation.