Minio storage on Linux. Quick installation guide.
According to the official site, “Minio is an object storage server released under Apache License v2.0. It is compatible with Amazon S3 cloud storage service. It is best suited for storing unstructured data such as photos, videos, log files, backups and container / VM images. Size of an object can range from a few KBs to a maximum of 5TB”. (https://docs.minio.io/)
Minio can be configured under Windows or Linux. However, due to some temporary issues with Windows, we highly recommend using Linux. Since Linux is distributed for free it’s very easy to find the needed installation package over the Internet. Download and install one of the popular Linux distros like:
Below you will find an installation script and other instructions for setting up your Minio storage.
1. Download and start Minio configuration script
su (or sudo su) // Evaluate privileges to root user
wget "https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/cblpublic/mcs.sh" // Download the script
chmod +x mcs.sh // Make the script executable
./mcs.sh // Run script
2. Script step-by-step explanation:
2.1 The installation script we previously provided will search for any unfinished/failed Minio installations and delete them automatically.
2.2 You can unmount a previously mounted share if you want to mount another share or use a local backup destination folder.
At this step, you can select your Linux OS.
There are several packages required for the correct work of the Minio server:
- sudo
- openssl
- cifs-utils
- curl
- nfs-common
- net-tools
- dnsutils
- samba
- smbclient
- htop
They will be installed automatically.
2.3 To point Minio to store data on a NAS or a file server, enter the IP address of that NAS/server. Keep it blank if you would like to use a local folder for Minio storage. Then press Enter.
2.4 In this step, you should specify a local backup destination folder. Steps 2.5 to 2.8, related to mounting a network share, will be skipped.
2.5 Specify the NAS/file server network share name.
2.6 Enter the username and domain name (you can omit @domain_name if the user is local) in the username@domain_name format.
2.7 Enter the user password. Input is not hidden to allow you to correctly specify the password.
2.8 Specify the path where you would like to mount a network share (e.g., /mnt/share). The folder will be created automatically.
2.9 At this step, the script shows an active local IP address from the routing table. Your local IP address will be used to create a self-signed SSL certificate. Your external/public IP address will be applied automatically.
2.10 You should then specify the access key for Minio. Minio requires the access key to consist of at least 3 numbers, but we suggest using a minimum of 8 symbols, numbers, and/or special characters for security purposes.
2.11 Enter the secret key for Minio. The secret key requires a minimum of 8 symbols, numbers, and/or special characters for security purposes.
Once you have entered all required information, the script will do the following:
- Permanently mount a network share if an IP address was specified
- Download the latest Minio binary
- Create self-signed SSL certificate
- Create new minio-user user and give that user permissions to Minio folders
- Open firewall port 9000
- Run Minio as a service
3. Adding a MinIO storage account in Managed Backup Service
3.1 Log in to the Management Console at https://mspbackups.com/
3.2 Go to Storage > Storage Account > Add account > show more… > Minio
Then you need to assign that storage account to the user. You can find more details at https://mspbackups.com/Admin/Help.aspx?c=Contents\help_apply_storage_for_user.html
4. Troubleshooting: most common issues
a. Install wget If you see the message “wget command cannot be found”, you need to install the wget package using the following command:
For Ubuntu / Debian: apt-get install wget -y
For CentOS: yum install wget -y
b. Manage Minio service You can use the following commands to start, stop, and get the status of MinIO:
systemctl start minio # Starts Minio service
systemctl stop minio # Stops Minio service
systemctl status minio # Shows Minio service status
c. Ubuntu: ERROR 22 (“sec=ntlm” issue) Sometimes, when mounting a shared folder, you may get the error message (-22). It happens due to the inability to negotiate the authentication method. Use the following steps to solve it.
sudo nano /etc/fstab
#Found and delete “sec=ntlm,”
#To save the changes and quit press “Ctrl + X”
#Then press “Y” to confirm and press “Enter”
sudo mount -a
d. Mount error (13): Permission denied Usually, the reason is the wrong username or password.
sudo nano /etc/minio/.smbcredentials
#Amend username or password
#To save the changes and quit press “Ctrl + X”
#Then press “Y” to confirm and press “Enter”
sudo mount -a
e. Access denied: check external access to the MinIO storage from any other server using the HTTPS link in the browser.
f. Once you have added the MinIO storage in the Management Console, you can go to the backup agent and start backing up your data to that Minio destination. During the first run, you will get a pop-up window where you should allow your self-signed certificate. The main difference between a self-signed certificate and a Certificate Authority (CA) certificate is that with self-signed, a browser will generally give some type of error, warning that the certificate is not issued by a Certificate Authority.
g. You can check the following files and folders if you have other issues.
/etc/minio/certs - SSL certificates folder
/usr/local/bin/minio - minio binary file.
/etc/default/minio - minio options file.
/etc/systemd/system/minio.service - minio service config file.
/etc/minio/.smbcredentials - network share credentials file.
/etc/fstab - network share mount options file.