MinIO Key Management Service

This documentation provides guidance on installation, usage, and configuration of the enterprise distribution of MinIO Key Management Service(KMS), formerly known as AIStor Key Manager. MinIO KMS is licensed under the MinIO Software License.

MinIO KMS is a robust key management server designed to store cryptographic keys for supporting encryption operations in AIStor object store deployments. It offers an in-suite, highly integrated alternative to other key manager products that require dedicated hardware, support, expertise, and licensing.

AIStor can use a KMS instance for the following features:

  • Server-Side Encryption (SSE) of objects
  • AIStor object store backend encryption (IAM, configurations)
License Requirement Removed

AIStor Key Manager no longer requires a license file for startup as of:

  • MinIO KMS binary release RELEASE.2025-11-12T19-14-51Z for Linux installations.
  • minkms-operator Helm chart version 1.5.0 for Kubernetes installations.
  • MinIO KMS Operator version 2026.4.13102716 for OpenShift installations.

For license configuration instructions for previous versions, see the Legacy License Installation Guide.

See the upgrade documentation for steps on how to upgrade your KMS cluster.