Deploy MinIO: Single-Node Single-Drive

The procedures on this page cover deploying MinIO in a Single-Node Single-Drive (SNSD) configuration for early development and evaluation. SNSD deployments use a zero-parity erasure coded backend that provides no added reliability or availability beyond what the underlying storage volume implements. These deployments are best suited for local testing and evaluation, or for small-scale data workloads that do not have availability or performance requirements.

Important

RELEASE.2022-10-29T06-21-33Z fully removes the deprecated Gateway/Filesystem backends. MinIO returns an error if it starts up and detects existing Filesystem backend files.

To migrate from an FS-backend deployment, use mc mirror or mc cp to copy your data over to a new MinIO SNSD deployment. You should also recreate any necessary users, groups, policies, and bucket configurations on the SNSD deployment.

Pre-Existing Data

MinIO startup behavior depends on the the contents of the specified storage volume or path. The server checks for both MinIO-internal backend data and the structure of existing folders and files. The following table lists the possible storage volume states and MinIO behavior:

Storage Volume State	Behavior
Empty with no files, folders, or MinIO backend data	MinIO starts in SNSD mode and creates the zero-parity backend
Existing SNSD zero-parity objects and MinIO backend data	MinIO resumes in SNSD mode
Existing filesystem folders, files, but no MinIO backend data	MinIO returns an error and does not start
Existing filesystem folders, files, and legacy “FS-mode” backend data	MinIO returns an error and does not start Changed in version RELEASE.2022-10-29T06-21-33Z.

Prerequisites

Storage Requirements

The following requirements summarize the Storage section of MinIO’s hardware recommendations:

Use Local Storage

Direct-Attached Storage (DAS) has significant performance and consistency advantages over networked storage (NAS, SAN, NFS). MinIO strongly recommends flash storage (NVMe, SSD) for primary or “hot” data.

Use XFS-Formatting for Drives

MinIO strongly recommends provisioning XFS formatted drives for storage. MinIO uses XFS as part of internal testing and validation suites, providing additional confidence in performance and behavior at all scales.

Persist Drive Mounting and Mapping Across Reboots

Use /etc/fstab to ensure consistent drive-to-mount mapping across node reboots.

Non-Linux Operating Systems should use the equivalent drive mount management tool.

Exclusive access to drives

MinIO requires exclusive access to the drives or volumes provided for object storage. No other processes, software, scripts, or persons should perform any actions directly on the drives or volumes provided to MinIO or the objects or files MinIO places on them.

Unless directed by MinIO Engineering, do not use scripts or tools to directly modify, delete, or move any of the data shards, parity shards, or metadata files on the provided drives, including from one drive or node to another. Such operations are very likely to result in widespread corruption and data loss beyond MinIO’s ability to heal.

Memory Requirements

Changed in version RELEASE.2024-01-28T22-35-53Z: MinIO pre-allocates 2GiB of system memory at startup.

MinIO recommends a minimum of 32GiB of memory per host. See Memory for more guidance on memory allocation in MinIO.

Deploy Single-Node Single-Drive MinIO

The following procedure deploys MinIO consisting of a single MinIO server and a single drive or storage volume.

Network File System Volumes Break Consistency Guarantees

MinIO’s strict read-after-write and list-after-write consistency model requires local drive filesystems.

MinIO cannot provide consistency guarantees if the underlying storage volumes are NFS or a similar network-attached storage volume.

1) Download the MinIO Server

Download the MinIO executable from the following URL:
https://dl.min.io/server/minio/release/windows-amd64/minio.exe
The next step includes instructions for running the executable. You cannot run the executable from the Explorer or by double clicking the file. Instead, you call the executable to launch the server.

2) Prepare the Data Path for MinIO

Ensure the data path is empty and contains no existing files, including any hidden or Windows system files.

If specifying a drive not dedicated for use by MinIO, consider creating a dedicated folder for storing MinIO data such as D:/Minio.

3) Start the MinIO Server

Open the Command Prompt or PowerShell and issue the following command to start the MinIO SNSD deployment in that session:

minio.exe server D:/minio --console-address ":9001"

The output should resemble the following:

Status:         1 Online, 0 Offline.
API: http://192.168.2.100:9000  http://127.0.0.1:9000
Console: http://192.168.2.100:9001 http://127.0.0.1:9001

Command-line: https://min.io/docs/minio/linux/reference/minio-mc.html
   $ mc alias set myminio http://10.0.2.100:9000 minioadmin minioadmin

Documentation: https://min.io/docs/minio/linux/index.html

The API block lists the network interfaces and port on which clients can access the MinIO S3 API. The Console block lists the network interfaces and port on which clients can access the MinIO Web Console.

4) Connect to the MinIO Server

MinIO Console

You can access the MinIO Console by entering any of the hostnames or IP addresses from the MinIO server Console block in your preferred browser, such as http://localhost:9001.

Log in with the MINIO_ROOT_USER and MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD configured in the environment file specified to the container.

MinIO Console displaying Buckets view in a fresh installation

You can use the MinIO Console for general administration tasks like Identity and Access Management, Metrics and Log Monitoring, or Server Configuration. Each MinIO server includes its own embedded MinIO Console.

If your local host firewall permits external access to the Console port, other hosts on the same network can access the Console using the IP or hostname for your local host.

MinIO CLI (mc)

You can access the MinIO deployment over a Terminal or Shell using the MinIO Client (mc). See MinIO Client Installation Quickstart for instructions on installing mc.

Create a new alias corresponding to the MinIO deployment. Specify any of the hostnames or IP addresses from the MinIO Server API block, such as http://localhost:9000.

mc alias set myminio http://localhost:9000 myminioadmin minio-secret-key-change-me

Replace myminio with the desired name to use for the alias.
Replace myminioadmin with the MINIO_ROOT_USER value in the environment file specified to the container.
Replace minio-secret-key-change-me with the MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD value in the environment file specified to the container.

You can then interact with the container using any mc command. If your local host firewall permits external access to the MinIO S3 API port, other hosts on the same network can access the MinIO deployment using the IP or hostname for your local host.