#Architecture

Alauda Container Platform (ACP) Object Storage with MinIO is a high-performance, distributed object storage system designed for cloud-native environments. It leverages erasure coding, distributed storage pools, and high-availability mechanisms to ensure data durability and scalability in Kubernetes.

#Core Components:

• MinIO Operator: Manages the deployment and upgrade of MinIO clusters.
• MinIO Peer: Configures and manages MinIO's site replication functionality.
• MinIO Pool: The core component of MinIO, responsible for handling object storage requests. Each pool corresponds to a StatefulSet and provides storage resources.

#Deployment Architecture:

Deploying MinIO in Kubernetes requires defining a MinIO tenant, specifying the number of server instances (pods) and the number of volumes (drives) per instance. Each MinIO server is managed via a StatefulSet, ensuring stable identities and persistent storage. MinIO aggregates all drives into one or more erasure sets and applies erasure coding for fault tolerance.

#Multi-Pool Expansion:

MinIO clusters can scale by adding additional server pools, each with its own erasure set. While this provides greater storage capacity, it introduces complexity in cluster maintenance and reduces overall cluster reliability. A failure in any server pool can render the entire MinIO cluster unavailable, even if other pools remain operational.

#Conclusion:

MinIO is a highly scalable, cloud-native object storage solution that balances performance and reliability. When architecting a MinIO cluster, it is crucial to carefully design storage pools, configure erasure coding settings, and implement high-availability strategies to ensure data integrity and operational stability in Kubernetes environments.