This procedure assumes you have access to a Kubernetes cluster with an active MinIO Operator installation. For instructions on running KES, see the KES docs.

As part of this procedure, you will:

1. Create or modify a MinIO deployment with support for SSE using KES. Defer to the Deploy Distributed MinIO tutorial for guidance on production-ready MinIO deployments.
2. Use the MinIO Operator Console to create or manage a MinIO Tenant.
3. Access the Encryption settings for that tenant and configure SSE using a supported Key Management System.
4. Create a new EK for use with SSE.
5. Configure automatic bucket-default SSE-KMS.

This procedure provides guidance for deploying MinIO configured to use KES and enable Server Side Encryption. For instructions on running KES, see the KES docs.

As part of this procedure, you will:

1. Create a new EK for use with SSE.
2. Create or modify a MinIO deployment with support for SSE using KES. Defer to the Deploy Distributed MinIO tutorial for guidance on production-ready MinIO deployments.
3. Configure automatic bucket-default SSE-KMS

You must have access to the Kubernetes cluster, with administrative permissions associated to your kubectl configuration.

This procedure assumes your permission sets extends sufficiently to support deployment or modification of MinIO-associated resources on the Kubernetes cluster, including but not limited to pods, statefulsets, replicasets, deployments, and secrets.

This procedure uses mc for performing operations on the MinIO cluster. Install mc on a machine with network access to the cluster. See the mc Installation Quickstart for instructions on downloading and installing mc.

This procedure assumes a configured alias for the MinIO cluster.

This procedure assumes an existing supported KMS installation accessible from the Kubernetes cluster.

• For deployments within the same Kubernetes cluster as the MinIO Tenant, you can use Kubernetes service names to allow the MinIO Tenant to establish connectivity to the target KMS service.
• For deployments external to the Kubernetes cluster, you must ensure the cluster supports routing communications between Kubernetes services and pods and the external network. This may require configuration or deployment of additional Kubernetes network components and/or enabling access to the public internet.

Defer to the documentation for your chosen KMS solution for guidance on deployment and configuration.

This procedure assumes an existing KES installation connected to a supported KMS installation accessible, both accessible from the local host. Refer to the installation instructions for your supported KMS target to deploy KES and connect it to a KMS solution.

1. Review the Tenant CRD

   Review the Tenant CRD TenantSpec.kes object, the TenantSpec.configuration object, and the KES Configuration reference.

   You must prepare all necessary configurations associated to your external Key Management Service of choice before proceeding.

2. Create or Modify your Tenant YAML to set the values of KesConfig as necessary:

   You must modify your Tenant YAML or Kustomize templates to reflect the necessary KES configuration. The following example is taken from the pinned MinIO Operator v7.1.1 Kustomize examples.

   kes:
      image: "" # minio/kes:2024-06-17T15-47-05Z
      env: [ ]
      replicas: 2
      kesSecret:
         name: kes-configuration
      imagePullPolicy: "IfNotPresent"

   The kes-configuration secret must reference a Kubernetes Opaque Secret which contains a stringData object with the full KES configuration as server-config.yaml. The keystore field must contain the full configuration associated with your preferred Key Management System.

   Reference the pinned v7.1.1 Kustomize example for additional guidance.

3. Create or Modify your Tenant YAML to set the values of TenantSpec.configuration as necessary.

   Create an Opaque Secret whose config.env key contains the environment variables required by the Tenant, then reference that Secret by name. Do not commit real root credentials to source control.

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Secret
   metadata:
     name: storage-configuration
     namespace: minio-tenant
   type: Opaque
   stringData:
     config.env: |-
       export MINIO_ROOT_USER="replace-with-root-user"
       export MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD="replace-with-a-strong-secret"
   ---
   apiVersion: minio.min.io/v2
   kind: Tenant
   spec:
     configuration:
       name: storage-configuration

   Keep the Secret and Tenant in the same namespace. See the pinned v7.1.1 Tenant configuration example for the upstream object shape.

4. Generate a New Encryption Key

   Note

   Unseal Vault Before Creating Key

   If required by your chosen provider, you must unseal the backing vault instance before creating new encryption keys. See the documentation for your chosen KMS solution for more information.

   MinIO requires that the EK for a given bucket or object exist on the root KMS before performing SSE operations using that key. You can use the mc admin kms key create command against the MinIO Tenant.

   You must ensure your local host can access the MinIO Tenant pods and services before using mc to manage the Tenant. For hosts internal to the Kubernetes cluster, you can use the service DNS name. For hosts external to the Kubernetes cluster, specify the hostname of the service exposed by Ingress, Load Balancer, or similar Kubernetes network control component.

   Run this command in a separate Terminal or Shell:

   # Replace '-n minio' with the namespace of the MinIO deployment
   # If you deployed the Tenant without TLS you may need to change the port range
   
   # You can validate the ports in use by running
   #  kubectl get svc/minio -n minio
   
   kubectl port forward svc/minio 443:443 -n minio

   The following commands in a new Terminal or Shell window:

   • Connect a local mc client to the Tenant.
   • Create the encryption key.

   See Quickstart for instructions on installing mc on your local host.

   # Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD with a user on the tenant with administrative permissions
   # such as the root user
   
   mc alias add k8s https://localhost:443 ROOTUSER ROOTPASSWORD
   
   # Replace my-new-key with the name of the key you want to use for SSE-KMS
   mc admin kms key create k8s encrypted-bucket-key

5. Enable SSE-KMS for a Bucket

   You can use either the MinIO Tenant Console or the MinIO mc CLI to enable bucket-default SSE-KMS with the generated key:

mc alias set k8s https://minio.minio-tenant-1.svc.cluster-domain.example:443 ROOTUSER ROOTPASSWORD

mc mb k8s/encryptedbucket
mc encrypt set SSE-KMS encrypted-bucket-key k8s/encryptedbucket