Deploy a MinIO Tenant

1) Initialize the MinIO Operator

kubectl minio requires the MinIO Operator. Use the kubectl minio init command to initialize the MinIO Operator:

kubectl minio init

The example command deploys the MinIO operator to the default namespace. Include the --namespace option to specify the namespace you want to deploy the MinIO operator into.

2) Configure the Persistent Volumes

MinIO automatically generates one Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) for each volume in the cluster. The cluster must have an equal number of Persistent Volumes (PV). MinIO strongly recommends using locally-attached storage to maximize performance and throughput.

The following steps create the necessary StorageClass and local Persistent Volumes (PV) resources such that each MinIO Pod and their associated storage are local to the same Node.

You can skip this step if the cluster already has local PV resources and a StorageClass configured for use by the MinIO Tenant.

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
   name: local-storage
provisioner: kubernetes.io/no-provisioner
volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
   name: PV-NAME
spec:
   capacity:
      storage: 1Ti
   volumeMode: Filesystem
   accessModes:
   - ReadWriteOnce
   persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain
   storageClassName: local-storage
   local:
      path: /mnt/disks/ssd1
   nodeAffinity:
      required:
         nodeSelectorTerms:
         - matchExpressions:
         - key: kubernetes.io/hostname
            operator: In
            values:
            - NODE-NAME

metadata:
   name:

nodeAffinity:
  required:
    nodeSelectorTerms:
    - key:
        values:

spec:
   storageClassName:

spec:
   local:
      path:

kubectl get PV

3) Create a Namespace for the MinIO Tenant

Use the kubectl create namespace command to create a namespace for the MinIO Tenant:

kubectl create namespace minio-tenant-1

MinIO supports exactly one Tenant per namespace.

4) Create the MinIO Tenant

Use the kubectl minio tenant create command to create the MinIO Tenant. The command always uses the latest stable Docker image of the MinIO Server and MinIO Console.

The following example creates a 4-node MinIO deployment with a total capacity of 16Ti across 16 drives.

kubectl minio tenant create minio-tenant-1   \
  --servers                 4                \
  --volumes                 16               \
  --capacity                16Ti             \
  --storageClassName        local-storage    \
  --namespace               minio-tenant-1

The following table explains each argument specified to the command:

On success, the command returns the following:

• The administrative username and password for the Tenant. Store these credentials in a secure location, such as a password protected key manager. MinIO does not show these credentials again.

• The Service created for connecting to the MinIO Console. The Console supports administrative operations on the Tenant, such as configuring Identity and Access Management (IAM) and bucket configurations.

• The Service created for connecting to the MinIO Tenant. Applications should use this service for performing operations against the MinIO Tenant.

5) Configure Access to the Service

kubectl minio creates a service for the MinIO Tenant and MinIO Console. The output of kubectl minio tenant create includes the details for both services. You can also use kubectl get svc to retrieve the service name:

kubectl get svc --namespace minio-tenant-1

The command returns output similar to the following:

NAME                     TYPE        CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)             AGE
minio                    ClusterIP   10.109.88.X     <none>        443/TCP             137m
minio-tenant-1-console   ClusterIP   10.97.87.X      <none>        9090/TCP,9443/TCP   129m
minio-tenant-1-hl        ClusterIP   None            <none>        9000/TCP            137m

• The minio service corresponds to the MinIO Tenant service. Applications should use this service for performing operations against the MinIO Tenant.

• The minio-tenant-1-console service corresponds to the MinIO Console. Administrators should use this service for accessing the MinIO Console and performing administrative operations on the MinIO Tenant.

• The minio-tenant-1-hl corresponds to a headless service used to facilitate communication between Pods in the Tenant.

By default each service is visible only within the Kubernetes cluster. Applications deployed inside the cluster can access the services using the CLUSTER-IP. For applications external to the Kubernetes cluster, you must configure the appropriate network rules to expose access to the service. Kubernetes provides multiple options for configuring external access to services. See the Kubernetes documentation on Publishing Services (ServiceTypes) and Ingress for more complete information on configuring external access to services.

You can temporarily expose each service using the kubectl port-forward utility. Run the following examples to forward traffic from the local host running kubectl to the services running inside the Kubernetes cluster.

kubectl port-forward service/minio 443:443

kubectl port-forward service/minio-tenant-1-console 9443:9443