How do I deploy MinIO on Kubernetes using KubeBlocks?

Install KubeBlocks via Helm, then install the MinIO addon: "helm upgrade -i kb-addon-minio kubeblocks/minio -n kb-system". Create a MinIO cluster by applying a Cluster resource with componentDef: minio, your desired replica count (minimum 4 for production erasure coding), and serviceVersion. KubeBlocks provisions pods, services, and PVCs automatically.

What MinIO versions does KubeBlocks support?

KubeBlocks supports MinIO 2024.6.29 and 2025.10.15. New versions can be added by updating the addon chart.

What is the minimum replica count for MinIO on KubeBlocks?

MinIO requires an even number of replicas for erasure coding. The minimum for a development deployment is 2 replicas. For production, a minimum of 4 replicas is recommended to achieve full erasure coding durability (in a symmetric single-drive-per-node layout, up to half the nodes can fail without data loss; actual tolerance depends on drive count and pool layout). Replicas cannot be scaled in once the cluster is created — only scale-out (adding nodes) is supported.

How do I access the MinIO Web Console?

The MinIO Web Console runs on port 9001. You can access it by exposing the service via LoadBalancer using KubeBlocks OpsRequest (type: Expose), or by using kubectl port-forward to forward port 9001 to your local machine. The S3 API runs on port 9000.

Is the KubeBlocks MinIO Operator open source?

Yes. KubeBlocks is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license at https://github.com/apecloud/kubeblocks. The MinIO addon is available at https://github.com/apecloud/kubeblocks-addons. An Enterprise edition adds a web management UI and dedicated support.

What is the difference between KubeBlocks MinIO Operator and the official MinIO Operator?

The official MinIO Kubernetes Operator uses a Tenant CRD and is purpose-built for MinIO. KubeBlocks MinIO Operator uses a unified OpsRequest API that is consistent across 35+ database and storage engines — making it easier for platform teams running MinIO alongside PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, or other databases. KubeBlocks provides vertical scaling, stop/start lifecycle management, and TLS management through the same API used for all other engines.

What is the best MinIO operator for Kubernetes in 2026?

In 2026, KubeBlocks MinIO Operator is a production-ready open-source option for running MinIO on Kubernetes. It supports MinIO 2024.6.29 and 2025.10.15 with erasure coding for data durability. Key capabilities include horizontal scale-out, vertical scaling, TLS encryption for S3 API and Web Console, built-in Prometheus metrics, and stop/start lifecycle management. As a unified operator for 35+ storage and database engines, KubeBlocks is especially valuable for platform teams running MinIO alongside PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, or other databases on Kubernetes.

The Production-Grade MinIO Operator for Kubernetes | KubeBlocks

Open Source · Production-Grade · S3-Compatible

KubeBlocks MinIO Operator for Kubernetes

Deploy production-grade MinIO distributed object storage on Kubernetes in minutes. S3-compatible, erasure-coded, with a built-in web console and TLS support.

Try Playground Free →Read the Docs

2

Supported Versions

4+

Min Nodes (Production)

100%

Open Source

Deploy MinIO in 2 steps

Install KubeBlocks & MinIO Addon

# Add Helm repo
helm repo add kubeblocks https://apecloud.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update

# Install KubeBlocks
helm install kubeblocks kubeblocks/kubeblocks \
  --namespace kb-system --create-namespace

# Install MinIO addon
helm upgrade -i kb-addon-minio kubeblocks/minio \
  --namespace kb-system

Create a MinIO Cluster

apiVersion: apps.kubeblocks.io/v1
kind: Cluster
metadata:
  name: minio-cluster
  namespace: demo
spec:
  terminationPolicy: Delete
  componentSpecs:
    - name: minio
      componentDef: minio
      replicas: 4
      serviceVersion: "2025.10.15"

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State Grid

BONC Cloud

China Mobile Cloud

China Telecom Cloud

Tencent

Xiaomi

Ping An

VIP.com

Kwai

Tiger Brokers

CITIC Securities

SealOS

FastGPT

KubeSphere

Momenta

360

Tilaa

Olares

Changan Automobile

State Grid

MinIO Architecture

Distributed Object Storage. One Operator.

KubeBlocks deploys MinIO in distributed mode where all nodes are equal and data is protected by erasure coding — in a symmetric single-drive-per-node layout, data remains intact even when up to half the nodes fail.

KubeBlocks deploys MinIO with 4 or more nodes (must be a multiple of 2). Each node stores a portion of the erasure-coded data shards — when a node fails, surviving nodes reconstruct the data from parity shards. KubeBlocks restarts the failed pod; it rejoins and syncs automatically.

✓

All nodes are symmetric — no primary/replica distinction, no single point of failure

✓

Erasure coding distributes data and parity shards across all nodes for data durability

✓

S3-compatible API on :9000 — works with any S3 SDK, CLI, or tool out of the box

✓

Built-in web console on :9001 — browse buckets, manage objects, configure users

✓

Peer discovery via Kubernetes headless service DNS — no external coordinator needed

✓

TLS support for both S3 API and web console via KubeBlocks cert management

Erasure Coding

S3-Compatible

Web Console

TLS

Application / Client

S3 API minio-cluster-minio:9000
Console minio-cluster-minio:9001

S3 API + console traffic → all pods (round-robin)

Kubernetes Services

minio-cluster-minio

ClusterIP · :9000 S3 API · :9001 console
all pods (round-robin)
no primary — symmetric cluster

S3 API + Console

→ any pod (symmetric, no primary)

Pods · Worker Nodes (4 total — showing 3 · e.g. cluster name: minio-cluster → minio-cluster-minio-0)

minio-0NODE

🗄️

minio

:9000 S3 API + metrics (/minio/v2/metrics/cluster) · :9001 console

💾 PVC data-0 · 100Gi (object storage)

minio-1NODE

🗄️

minio

:9000 S3 API + metrics (/minio/v2/metrics/cluster) · :9001 console

💾 PVC data-1 · 100Gi (object storage)

minio-2NODE

🗄️

minio

:9000 S3 API + metrics (/minio/v2/metrics/cluster) · :9001 console

💾 PVC data-2 · 100Gi (object storage)

+minio-3 — identical configuration · 100Gi PVC · same NODE role

⬡Reed-Solomon Erasure CodingEC ratio determined by MinIO based on drive count · e.g. EC:4 (4 parity drives) in an 8-node layout · actual params vary with topology

🔗Headless service — stable pod DNS for internal use (replication, HA heartbeat, operator probes); not a client endpoint

S3 API Traffic

Distributed Node (symmetric)

Persistent Storage

Day-2 Operations

Every Operation Declared as a Kubernetes Resource

No SSH into pods, no shell scripts. Submit an OpsRequest and KubeBlocks handles the rest.

Availability & Scaling

✓

Horizontal Scale-Out

Add nodes in multiples of 2. New nodes join the cluster and participate in erasure coding after a cluster restart. Min 4 nodes for production.

✓

Vertical Scaling

Resize CPU and memory on running nodes via OpsRequest with a rolling pod restart strategy — the cluster continues serving during the operation.

✓

Rolling Restart

Controlled pod restarts that keep the cluster serving S3 requests throughout the operation.

✓

Stop / Start

Suspend the cluster to eliminate compute cost; resume with full object data and bucket configuration intact.

✓

Expose via LoadBalancer

Expose the S3 API or web console externally via a LoadBalancer or NodePort service for out-of-cluster access.

Configuration & Observability

✓

TLS Encryption

Enable TLS for both the S3 API (:9000) and web console (:9001) via KubeBlocks certificate management.

✓

Auto-Create Buckets

Set the MINIO_BUCKETS env var to automatically create buckets during cluster initialization.

✓

Credential Management

Root credentials are auto-generated and stored in a Kubernetes Secret. Retrieve via kubectl for SDK or console access.

✓

Prometheus Metrics

Built-in metrics endpoint with public auth type. Compatible with Prometheus scraping and Grafana dashboards.

✓

Multi-Engine Consistency

Manage MinIO alongside PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, and 35+ other engines using the same OpsRequest API and kubectl tooling.

Capabilities

Built for Production MinIO

KubeBlocks handles the operational complexity of running MinIO on Kubernetes — so your team can focus on building.

🛡️

Erasure Coding — Data Durability Across Nodes

MinIO splits each object into data and parity shards distributed across all nodes. Surviving nodes reconstruct lost data from parity shards automatically.

Survives Node Loss

Data

minio-0

Shard D0
Shard D1

Data

minio-1

Shard D2
Shard D3

Parity

minio-2

Shard P0
Shard P1

Parity

minio-3

Shard P2
Shard P3

EC:2

Parity (illustrative)

Node Failures (4-node)

Data Loss

No RAID, no replication. Erasure coding uses less storage than full replication while tolerating more failures. In this symmetric 4-node, single-drive layout, 2 of 4 nodes can fail without data loss. Actual tolerance depends on drive count and pool layout.

From the Blog

Go Deeper on MinIO on Kubernetes

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How Sealos used KubeBlocks to manage 6,000+ self-hosted databases across four availability zones — architecture, HA, backup, and operations.

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We tested AI agents against traditional Kubernetes database operators. The results revealed a fundamental mismatch between fragmented operator APIs and how LLMs reason.

Validating KubeBlocks Addon High Availability with Chaos Mesh

How to leverage Chaos Mesh for chaos engineering to validate and enhance KubeBlocks high availability capabilities through systematic fault injection testing.

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MinIO on Kubernetes, the Easy Way

Deploy a production-grade MinIO distributed object storage cluster in minutes with erasure coding, TLS, built-in web console, and full Day-2 operations — all open source.

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# Add Helm repo helm repo add kubeblocks https://apecloud.github.io/helm-charts helm repo update # Install KubeBlocks helm install kubeblocks kubeblocks/kubeblocks \ --namespace kb-system --create-namespace # Install MinIO addon helm upgrade -i kb-addon-minio kubeblocks/minio \ --namespace kb-system

apiVersion: apps.kubeblocks.io/v1 kind: Cluster metadata: name: minio-cluster namespace: demo spec: terminationPolicy: Delete componentSpecs: - name: minio componentDef: minio replicas: 4 serviceVersion: "2025.10.15"