Configure Object Storage with Docker Compose or Helm

Milvus uses MinIO for object storage by default, but it also supports using Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) as persistent object storage for log and index files. This topic describes how to configure S3 for Milvus. You can skip this topic if you are satisfied with MinIO.

You can configure S3 with Docker Compose or on K8s.

Configure S3 with Docker Compose

1. Configure S3

MinIO is compatible with S3. To configure S3 with Docker Compose, provide your values for the minio section in the milvus.yaml file on the milvus/configs path.

minio:
  address: <your_s3_endpoint>
  port: <your_s3_port>
  accessKeyID: <your_s3_access_key_id>
  secretAccessKey: <your_s3_secret_access_key>
  useSSL: <true/false>
  bucketName: "<your_bucket_name>"

See MinIO/S3 Configurations for more information.

2. Refine docker-compose.yaml

You'd also remove the MINIO_ADDRESS environment variable for milvus service at docker-compose.yaml. By default milvus will use local minio instead of external S3.

3. Run Milvus

Run the following command to start Milvus that uses the S3 configurations.

docker compose up

Configurations only take effect after Milvus starts. See Start Milvus for more information.

Configure S3 on K8s

For Milvus clusters on K8s, you can configure S3 in the same command that starts Milvus. Alternatively, you can configure S3 using the values.yml file on the /charts/milvus path in the milvus-helm repository before you start Milvus.

The following table lists the keys for configuring S3 in the YAML file.

Key	Description	Value
`minio.enabled`	Enables or disables MinIO.	`true`/`false`
`externalS3.enabled`	Enables or disables S3.	`true`/`false`
`externalS3.host`	The endpoint to access S3.
`externalS3.port`	The port to access S3.
`externalS3.rootPath`	The root path of the S3 storage.	An emtpy string by default.
`externalS3.accessKey`	The access key ID for S3.
`externalS3.secretKey`	The secret access key for S3.
`externalS3.bucketName`	The name of the S3 bucket.
`externalS3.useSSL`	Whether to use SSL when connecting	The values defaults to `false`

Using the YAML file

Configure the minio section in the values.yaml file.

minio:
  enabled: false

Configure the externalS3 section using your values in the values.yaml file.

externalS3:
  enabled: true
  host: "<your_s3_endpoint>"
  port: "<your_s3_port>"
  accessKey: "<your_s3_access_key_id>"
  secretKey: "<your_s3_secret_key>"
  useSSL: <true/false>
  bucketName: "<your_bucket_name>"
  useSSL: <true/false>

After configuring the preceding sections and saving the values.yaml file, run the following command to install Milvus that uses the S3 configurations.

helm install <your_release_name> milvus/milvus -f values.yaml

Using a command

To install Milvus and configure S3, run the following command using your values.

helm install <your_release_name> milvus/milvus --set cluster.enabled=true  --set minio.enabled=false --set externalS3.enabled=true --set externalS3.host=<your_s3_endpoint> --set externalS3.port=<your_s3_port> --set externalS3.accessKey=<your_s3_access_key_id> --set externalS3.secretKey=<your_s3_secret_key> --set externalS3.bucketName=<your_bucket_name>

What's next

Learn how to configure other Milvus dependencies with Docker Compose or Helm: