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Reference

Scope

Look-up facts for MinIO: editions and where each artifact now comes from, the dated community-edition timeline, security advisories, S3 API and erasure-code limits, defaults and environment variables, built-in policies, STS APIs, metrics, replication scope, and alternatives. For why things work this way, see Explanation. For tasks, see How-to Guides.

Editions and Distribution

MinIO, Inc. now ships one actively developed product, AIStor, in three subscription tiers. The AGPLv3 community edition is archived. Tiers were announced on 2025-12-23 (Business Wire, StorageReview).

Edition License Topology Support Price
Community edition (minio/minio) GNU AGPLv3 Any (single node to multi-pool) None. Repository archived, no maintainer Free
AIStor Free Proprietary free license (license key) Single node only (standalone) Community only Free
AIStor Enterprise Lite Commercial subscription Multi-node, for capacity below 400 TiB (moves to Enterprise above that) Optional direct-to-engineer, reduced SLA Not published (TBD — quote only)
AIStor Enterprise Commercial subscription Unlimited scale 24/7/365, under-4-hour SLA Not published (TBD — quote only)

Pricing is quote-only

The pricing page does not list per-TiB prices (checked 2026-09). Third-party figures such as "~$96,000/year" are estimates and are not used here.

Artifact and Repository Status

Where each piece of the former open-source stack stands (checked 2026-09-25).

Artifact Status Last version / date Source
minio/minio server repo Archived (read-only). README says "THIS REPOSITORY IS NO LONGER MAINTAINED" Last commit 2026-02-12 (README edit). Last tagged community release RELEASE.2025-10-15T17-29-55Z README, Go module proxy
Pre-built server binaries (dl.min.io/server/minio/release/) Frozen legacy builds, no updates since the October 2025 source-only switch — README "Legacy Binary Releases"
Docker Hub minio/minio, minio/mc Repositories deleted on 2026-09-11. Hub API returns "object not found" (verified 2026-09-25) — StableBuild, bex.co
Quay quay.io/minio/minio Historical images reported still pullable. No guarantee they stay Up to 2025-10 builds bex.co (not verified directly)
minio/mc client repo Reported archived 2026-07-14. dl.min.io/client/mc/release/ reported to answer 410 Gone Last release reported as RELEASE.2025-08-13T08-35-41Z Storm Developments (single source)
minio/operator Reported archived 2026-03-20. Helm repo operator.min.io serves the final charts v7.1.1 (Chart.yaml on HEAD) minio/operator, SILO docs
minio/kes Deprecated: "no longer maintained". Paying customers get Enterprise KES or MinKMS (AIStor Key Manager) — minio/kes README
Community docs (minio/docs) Pulled from web hosting on 2025-10-10. Source kept for self-build — minio/docs README
Embedded Console Admin UI removed from community builds in RELEASE.2025-05-24T17-08-30Z. Only an object browser remains Last full console: RELEASE.2025-04-22T22-12-26Z Release notes
Community Helm chart (helm/minio in server repo) Frozen chart 5.4.0, appVersion RELEASE.2024-12-18T13-15-44Z helm/minio/Chart.yaml

Community Edition Timeline

Dated events. The reasons and consequences are discussed in Explanation.

Date Event Source
2019-10 to 2021-05-11 Relicensing from Apache 2.0 to GNU AGPLv3, completed with RELEASE.2021-05-11T23-27-41Z MinIO blog
2022 Gateway mode and legacy FS mode removed from the server Release history (dates not re-verified — TBD)
2025-02-26 "Simplified console" commit lands in the repository Blocks and Files
2025-05-24 RELEASE.2025-05-24T17-08-30Z: admin console and LDAP/OIDC console login removed; object browser only Release, Discussion #21316
2025-10-10 Community documentation taken offline minio/docs
2025-10-15 RELEASE.2025-10-15T17-29-55Z fixes CVE-2025-62506. New Docker Hub/Quay images stop at this point GHSA-jjjj-jwhf-8rgr, GIGAZINE
2025-10 (about 10-23) README announces source-only distribution: no pre-compiled community binaries README
2025-12-03 README puts the project in "maintenance mode": no features, PRs not reviewed, security fixes only "as appropriate" Issue #21714, Vonng
2025-12-23 AIStor Free and Enterprise Lite tiers announced Business Wire
2026-02-03 AIStor Tables (Iceberg V3 REST catalog) reaches GA Blocks and Files
2026-02-12/13 README changed to "no longer maintained"; repository archived Go module proxy (last commit 2026-02-12T20:18Z), ai-minor
2026-04-25 Repository archived again after a brief unarchive (as reported) Storm Developments
2026-09-11 minio/minio and minio/mc repositories deleted from Docker Hub StableBuild, Milvus issue #53430

Security Advisories of Note

ID Published Severity Summary Fixed in community?
CVE-2025-62506 / GHSA-jjjj-jwhf-8rgr 2025-10-16 High Service accounts and STS credentials with a restricted session policy could create new service accounts that bypass the inline policy Yes, RELEASE.2025-10-15T17-29-55Z (source build only; no official image)
CVE-2026-39414 / GHSA-h749-fxx7-pwpg 2026-04-09 High S3 Select CSV reader buffers a whole line in memory; a small gzip CSV with no newlines can OOM the server. Needs s3:PutObject + s3:GetObject No. All community releases are affected; fixed only in AIStor. Mitigate by blocking POST ?select&select-type=2 at the proxy

Unpatched community codebase

Advisories published after the archive do not get a community fix. Run an AIStor edition, a maintained fork (see Alternatives), or a vendor that backports patches (for example TuxCare ELS, announcement).

S3 API Limits

From the community thresholds page.

Item Limit
Maximum object size 50 TiB
Maximum size per PUT 5 TiB single-part, 50 TiB multipart
Parts per multipart upload 10,000
Part size 5 MiB to 5 GiB (last part 0 B to 5 GiB)
Objects returned per ListObjects 1,000
Bucket name length 63
Object name length 1,024 (255 per /-separated segment)
Versions per object 10,000 (configurable)
Servers per cluster, drives per server No limit

Erasure Code Parameters

Erasure set size: 2 to 16 drives, chosen automatically from the node and drive count of the first pool. AIStor RELEASE.2026-02-02T23-40-11Z and later allow up to 32 drives with MINIO_ERASURE_SET_DRIVE_COUNT (AIStor docs).

Default STANDARD parity by erasure set size (storage-class settings):

Erasure set size Default parity
1 EC:0
2-3 EC:1
4-5 EC:2
6-7 EC:3
8-16 EC:4

Parity range is EC:0 to EC:N/2. AIStor docs require EC:3 or higher in production. A parity change applies only to newly written objects.

Outcome on one 16-drive erasure set of 1 TB drives (erasure coding docs):

Parity Data shards (K) Usable capacity Storage ratio Drives needed to read Drives needed to write Drive losses tolerated (read)
EC:2 14 14 TiB 0.875 14 14 2
EC:4 (default) 12 12 TiB 0.750 12 12 4
EC:6 10 10 TiB 0.625 10 10 6
EC:8 (maximum) 8 8 TiB 0.500 8 9 8

Quorum rules: read quorum = K. Write quorum = K, except when parity is exactly half the set (M = N/2), where it is K+1. The EC:2 row is computed from these rules; the other rows are from the docs table.

Defaults, Ports, and Environment Variables

Item Value
S3 API port 9000
Console / object browser port Random unless --console-address ":9001" is set
Default root credentials minioadmin / minioadmin (change before exposing)
Root credential variables MINIO_ROOT_USER, MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD
Parity MINIO_STORAGE_CLASS_STANDARD=EC:N, MINIO_STORAGE_CLASS_RRS=EC:N (objects choose via x-amz-storage-class)
TLS directory ~/.minio/certs (public.crt, private.key, trusted CAs in CAs/), override with --certs-dir
Encrypted TLS key password MINIO_CERT_PASSWD
KES connection MINIO_KMS_KES_ENDPOINT, MINIO_KMS_KES_KEY_FILE, MINIO_KMS_KES_CERT_FILE, MINIO_KMS_KES_KEY_NAME
Build requirement (community source) Go 1.24 or later (go.mod: go 1.24.0)
Recommended drives Local NVMe/SSD, XFS, JBOD, no RAID or controller caching

Built-in Policies

From the community PBAC docs.

Policy Grants
consoleAdmin s3:* and admin:* on all resources
readonly s3:GetBucketLocation, s3:GetObject (no listing, by design)
readwrite All s3:* actions on all resources
diagnostics admin:ServerTrace, admin:Profiling, admin:ConsoleLog, admin:ServerInfo, admin:TopLocksInfo, admin:OBDInfo, admin:BandwidthMonitor, admin:Prometheus
writeonly s3:PutObject (no listing)

There is no built-in policy named admin; use consoleAdmin.

STS APIs

API Identity source Notes
AssumeRole MinIO internal users Temporary credentials for an existing access key
AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity OpenID Connect provider (Keycloak, Dex, Okta, Entra ID) Maps a JWT claim (default policy) to policies
AssumeRoleWithLDAPIdentity Active Directory / LDAP Maps LDAP user or group DNs to policies
AssumeRoleWithCertificate X.509 client certificate (mTLS) Policy named after the certificate subject CN
AssumeRoleWithCustomToken MinIO Identity Plugin External authorization service validates a custom token
AssumeRoleWithClientGrants OAuth2 client credentials Legacy; no longer listed in current STS docs

Metrics

Prometheus v2 endpoints need a bearer token (mc admin prometheus generate ALIAS [cluster|node|bucket|resource]). Paths: /minio/v2/metrics/cluster, /minio/v2/metrics/node, /minio/v2/metrics/bucket, /minio/v2/metrics/resource (metrics docs).

Metric Meaning
minio_cluster_health_status 1 when the cluster is healthy
minio_cluster_health_erasure_set_status Health per erasure set
minio_cluster_nodes_offline_total Offline nodes
minio_cluster_drive_offline_total / minio_cluster_drive_online_total Drive availability
minio_cluster_capacity_usable_free_bytes Usable free capacity after parity
minio_node_drive_used_bytes / minio_node_drive_free_bytes Per-drive usage
minio_s3_requests_total, minio_s3_requests_errors_total, minio_s3_requests_5xx_errors_total Request and error rates
minio_heal_objects_errors_total Healing failures
minio_inter_node_traffic_sent_bytes Internode traffic

Site Replication Scope

From the site replication README.

Replicated Not replicated
Bucket and object creation and deletion Bucket notification configuration
IAM users, groups, policies and mappings; STS credentials; service accounts (except root-owned) Bucket lifecycle (ILM) configuration
Bucket policies, tags, object-lock config, encryption config
Versioning (enabled automatically on all buckets)

Prerequisites: only one site may hold data when replication is set up, all sites must use the same external IdP, and SSE-S3/SSE-KMS sites need a shared KMS.

Hardening Checklist

  • Replace minioadmin root credentials; use root only for break-glass.
  • Serve TLS on the S3 and console ports (~/.minio/certs), and mTLS between MinIO and KES.
  • Use OIDC or LDAP with STS credentials instead of long-lived access keys.
  • Grant least-privilege policies; avoid consoleAdmin and readwrite for applications.
  • Block anonymous access unless a bucket is intentionally public (mc anonymous set none).
  • Enable SSE-KMS (or SSE-S3 with a real KMS) and keep keys outside the cluster.
  • Send audit logs to audit_webhook or audit_kafka targets.
  • Keep parity at EC:3 or higher and alert on minio_cluster_health_erasure_set_status.
  • Track advisories: the archived community edition gets no fixes (see Security Advisories).

AIStor Features Beyond the Community Edition

Feature Detail Verification
Full admin console User, policy, and configuration management in the browser Confirmed (removed from community in 2025-05)
AIStor Tables Iceberg V3 REST Catalog API inside the object store, with views and multi-table transactions; GA 2026-02-03 Blocks and Files, HPCwire
Erasure sets up to 32 drives MINIO_ERASURE_SET_DRIVE_COUNT, RELEASE.2026-02-02T23-40-11Z+ AIStor docs
MinKMS (AIStor Key Manager) Replaces the deprecated open-source KES minio/kes README
Multi-NIC internode networking, direct-write GetObject, coalesced lock refresh, Go eBPF loader Performance items from AIStor release notes Unverified (release notes host blocked, 2026-09) — TBD

Recent AIStor release tags include RELEASE.2026-02-02T23-40-11Z, RELEASE.2026-05-28T20-50-32Z and RELEASE.2026-08-07T18-34-35Z (release-notes files on dl.min.io, seen 2026-09). Newer releases may exist.

Alternatives and Forks

Project Relationship License Status (2026-09) Notes
PGSTY Silo (formerly pgsty/minio) Fork of MinIO server AGPLv3 Active. Latest server RELEASE.2026-09-03T13-18-01Z; renamed from pgsty/minio on 2026-08-06 Restores the full console, rebuilds binaries, RPM/DEB and multi-arch images (pgsty/silo), backports CVE fixes, ships mcli
OpenMaxIO object browser Fork of the pre-removal console UI AGPLv3 Reported dormant soon after the 2025 fork UI only; still needs a MinIO server
RustFS Independent Rust rewrite, S3-compatible, MinIO-like design Apache 2.0 1.0.0 image published 2026-09-16 Has a web console, bitrot protection, OIDC
SeaweedFS Independent (volume + filer design) Apache 2.0 Active S3 gateway on top of its filer
Garage Independent, geo-distributed, small-footprint AGPLv3 Active (v2.4.x images) Replication, not erasure coding
Ceph RGW Independent (RADOS-backed S3/Swift) LGPL Active Heavier to operate; also gives block and file

Performance Figures (Unsourced)

Unsourced performance data

These numbers were estimated from vendor material, community benchmarks, and judgement. They are not controlled benchmarks: hardware, versions, and methods were not recorded. Use them as rough guidance only and run MinIO warp against your own hardware for planning.

Configuration PUT (obj/s) GET (obj/s) Throughput
4 nodes, HDD 500-1,000 1,000-2,000 1-2 GB/s
4 nodes, SSD 2,000-5,000 5,000-10,000 5-10 GB/s
16 nodes, NVMe 10,000-30,000 30,000-80,000 30-80 GB/s
Parity (16-drive set) Storage efficiency (verified) Write penalty (estimate)
EC:2 87.5% +15%
EC:4 (default) 75% +30%
EC:8 50% +60%
Nodes CPU/node Memory/node Network
4 (minimum) 4 vCPU 8 GiB 10 Gbps
8 (production) 8 vCPU 16 GiB 25 Gbps
16 (large) 16 vCPU 32 GiB 25-100 Gbps

The earlier "32 server pools" and "1,000+ buckets per server" limits could not be found in MinIO documentation and were removed; the docs list no limit on servers or drives.

Sources