Deploying MinIO Object Storage Server on Ubuntu 24.04

MinIO is a high-performance, S3-compatible object storage server you can run on your own infrastructure. This guide deploys MinIO using Docker Compose with Traefik handling automatic HTTPS on two separate domains — one for the web console, one for the S3 API, following S3-compatible object storage deployment practices documented in Vultr Docs.

Set Up the Directory Structure

1. Create the project directory structure:

mkdir -p ~/minio/{data,letsencrypt}
cd ~/minio

2. Create the environment file:

nano .env

MINIO_ROOT_USER=admin
MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD=STRONG_PASSWORD
DOMAIN_CONSOLE=console.example.com
DOMAIN_API=s3.example.com
LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=admin@example.com

Point DNS A records for both DOMAIN_CONSOLE and DOMAIN_API at the server.

Deploy with Docker Compose

1. Add your user to the Docker group:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

2. Create the Docker Compose manifest:

nano docker-compose.yml

services:
  traefik:
    image: traefik:latest
    container_name: traefik
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      DOCKER_API_VERSION: "1.44"
    command:
      - "--providers.docker=true"
      - "--providers.docker.exposedbydefault=false"
      - "--entrypoints.web.address=:80"
      - "--entrypoints.websecure.address=:443"
      - "--entrypoints.web.http.redirections.entrypoint.to=websecure"
      - "--entrypoints.web.http.redirections.entrypoint.scheme=https"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.le.acme.httpchallenge=true"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.le.acme.httpchallenge.entrypoint=web"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.le.acme.email=${LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL}"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.le.acme.storage=/letsencrypt/acme.json"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
      - ./letsencrypt:/letsencrypt

  minio:
    image: minio/minio:latest
    container_name: minio
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: server /data --console-address ":9001"
    environment:
      MINIO_ROOT_USER: ${MINIO_ROOT_USER}
      MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD}
      MINIO_BROWSER_REDIRECT_URL: https://${DOMAIN_CONSOLE}
    volumes:
      - ./data:/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:9000/minio/health/live"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 20s
      retries: 3
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.minio-api.rule=Host(`${DOMAIN_API}`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.minio-api.entrypoints=websecure"
      - "traefik.http.routers.minio-api.tls=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.minio-api.tls.certresolver=le"
      - "traefik.http.routers.minio-api.service=minio-api-svc"
      - "traefik.http.services.minio-api-svc.loadbalancer.server.port=9000"
      - "traefik.http.routers.minio-console.rule=Host(`${DOMAIN_CONSOLE}`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.minio-console.entrypoints=websecure"
      - "traefik.http.routers.minio-console.tls=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.minio-console.tls.certresolver=le"
      - "traefik.http.routers.minio-console.service=minio-console-svc"
      - "traefik.http.services.minio-console-svc.loadbalancer.server.port=9001"

3. Start the services:

docker compose up -d

4. Verify the services are running:

docker compose ps

Access MinIO

• Web console: https://console.example.com — sign in with MINIO_ROOT_USER / MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD.

• S3 API: https://s3.example.com — point S3 SDKs and CLIs at this endpoint with the same credentials.

Next Steps

MinIO is running with separate console and API endpoints over HTTPS. From here you can:

• Create buckets, users, and access policies from the console

• Generate non-root access keys for application use

• Configure server-side encryption and bucket versioning for durability

For the full guide with additional tips, visit the original article on Vultr Docs.