MinIO

MinIO on QBO - Deploying High-Performance Object Storage

Introduction

MinIO is a high-performance, S3-compatible object storage system, ideal for cloud-native applications. Running MinIO on QBO provides scalability, multi-architecture support (arm64 & amd64), and high availability.

QBO’s Kubernetes in Docker approach enhances performance and portability, making it an excellent choice for deploying MinIO. With bare-metal efficiency, direct resource access, and self-contained cloud environments, QBO ensures seamless MinIO operation in private, public, air-gapped, on-prem, or hybrid environments.

In this demo, we will walk through setting up a distributed MinIO deployment on QBO, configuring external access, and testing data uploads using mc (MinIO Client).

1 Setting Up QBO Cluster

First, we need a QBO Kubernetes cluster:

qbo version | jq .version[]?

Check if the cluster already exists:

qbo get cluster $(basename "$PWD") | jq -e '.clusters[]?'

If it does not exist, create one:

qbo add cluster $(basename "$PWD") -n 4 -i hub.docker.com/kindest/node:v1.32.0 | jq

Retrieve nodes:

qbo get nodes $(basename "$PWD") | jq .nodes[]?

Set Kubernetes configuration:

qbo get cluster $(basename "$PWD") -k | jq -r '.output[]?.kubeconfig | select( . != null)' > $HOME/.qbo/$(basename "$PWD").conf
export KUBECONFIG=$HOME/.qbo/$(basename "$PWD").conf

Verify nodes:

kubectl get nodes

2 Deploying Distributed MinIO

Apply the MinIO StatefulSet:

cat distributed/minio-distributed-statefulset.yaml
kubectl apply -f distributed/minio-distributed-statefulset.yaml

Deploy the headless service:

cat distributed/minio-distributed-headless-service.yaml
kubectl apply -f distributed/minio-distributed-headless-service.yaml

Deploy the LoadBalancer service for external access:

cat distributed/minio-distributed-service.yaml
kubectl apply -f distributed/minio-distributed-service.yaml

Check the deployment:

kubectl get pods -n default
kubectl describe pod/minio -n default
kubectl logs pod/minio -n default

3 Installing MinIO Client (mc)

If mc is not installed, install it dynamically:

ARCH=$(uname -m)
if [[ "$ARCH" == "x86_64" ]]; then ARCH="amd64"; elif [[ "$ARCH" == "aarch64" ]]; then ARCH="arm64"; else echo "Unsupported architecture: $ARCH"; exit 1; fi
cd ~
curl -sSL -o mc https://dl.min.io/client/mc/release/linux-$ARCH/mc
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
sudo install -m 555 mc ~/.local/bin/mc
export PATH="~/.local/bin:$PATH"

4 Validating MinIO Service

Check if MinIO’s internal DNS resolution is working:

kubectl run busybox --image=busybox:latest --restart=Never -it --rm -- nslookup minio.default.svc.cluster.local

Retrieve external LoadBalancer IP:

LB=$(kubectl get svc minio -n default --ignore-not-found -o json | jq -r '.spec.externalIPs[0] | select ( . != null)')

Test MinIO API:

curl -I http://$LB:9000

Configure MinIO Client (mc):

mc alias set myminio http://$LB:9000 minio minio123
mc admin info myminio

5 Uploading and Retrieving Data

Create a new bucket:

mc mb myminio/mybucket

Upload a test file:

echo "Hello MinIO!" > testfile.txt
mc cp testfile.txt myminio/mybucket/

List stored objects:

mc ls myminio/mybucket/

6 Accessing MinIO Web UI

MinIO’s Web UI runs on port 9001. Access it via the LoadBalancer:

http://$LB:9001

Credentials:

User: minio
Password: minio123

7 Why MinIO on QBO? Performance and Portability

Performance Benefits

Bare-Metal Efficiency - QBO eliminates the overhead of traditional virtualization, ensuring MinIO runs at peak performance.
Direct Resource Access - Containers in QBO get direct access to CPU, RAM, and GPUs, improving performance for data-intensive workloads.

Portability Advantages

Versatile Deployment - MinIO runs seamlessly on on-prem, cloud, hybrid, and air-gapped environments.
Self-Contained Cloud - QBO simplifies Kubernetes management, making MinIO deployments more portable and independent.

8 Conclusion

By deploying MinIO on QBO, we achieve scalable, high-performance object storage with full Kubernetes integration.

QBO’s Kubernetes in Docker architecture enhances performance and portability, making it an ideal choice for cloud-native applications.

Start using MinIO on QBO today for an efficient, high-performance, and scalable storage solution.