docs/source/administration/object-management/transition-objects-to-azure.rst

Transition Objects from MinIO to Azure

minio

Table of Contents

The procedure on this page creates a new object lifecycle management rule that transition objects from a MinIO bucket to a remote storage tier on the Azure (Microsoft Azure) storage backend. This procedure supports use cases like moving aged data to low-cost public cloud storage solutions after a certain time period or calendar date.

Requirements

Install and Configure mc

This procedure uses mc for performing operations on the MinIO cluster. Install mc on a machine with network access to both source and destination clusters. See the mc Installation Quickstart <mc-install> for instructions on downloading and installing mc.

Use the mc alias set command to create an alias for the source MinIO cluster. Alias creation requires specifying an access key for a user on the source and destination clusters. The specified users must have permissions <minio-lifecycle-management-transition-to-azure-permissions> for configuring and applying transition operations.

Required MinIO Permissions

MinIO requires the following permissions scoped to the bucket or buckets for which you are creating lifecycle management rules.

• s3:PutLifecycleConfiguration
• s3:GetLifecycleConfiguration

MinIO also requires the following administrative permissions on the cluster in which you are creating remote tiers for object transition lifecycle management rules:

• admin:SetTier
• admin:ListTier

For example, the following policy provides permission for configuring object transition lifecycle management rules on any bucket in the cluster:.

/extra/examples/LifecycleManagementAdmin.json

Required Azure Permissions

Object transition lifecycle management rules require additional permissions on the remote storage tier. Specifically, MinIO requires the Azure (Microsoft Azure) credentials provide read, write, list, and delete permissions for the remote storage account and container.

Refer to the Azure RBAC documentation for more complete guidance on configuring the required permissions.

Remote Storage Account and Container Must Exist

Create the remote Azure storage account <storage/common/storage-account-overview> and container prior to configuring lifecycle management tiers or rules using that resource as the target. When creating the Azure storage account <storage/common/storage-account-create>, ensure the storage account corresponds to either Standard or Premium blob storage with the locally redundant storage (LRS) redundancy option. The Azure Go SDK API used by MinIO does not support any other redundancy options.

If you set a Storage Account default access tier <storage/blobs/access-tiers-online-manage>, MinIO uses that default if you do not specify a storage class <mc ilm tier add --storage-class> when defining the remote tier. Ensure you document the settings of both your Azure storage account and MinIO tiering configuration to avoid any potential confusion, misconfiguration, or other unexpected outcomes.

For more information on Azure storage accounts, see Storage accounts <storage/common/storage-account-overview#types-of-storage-accounts>.

Considerations

Exclusive Access to Remote Data

Important

MinIO does not support changing the account name associated to an Azure remote tier. Azure storage backends are tied to the account, such that changing the account would change the storage backend and prevent access to any objects transitioned to the original account/backend.

Please contact MinIO Support if you need situation-specific guidance around configuring Azure remote tiers.

Availability of Remote Data

Procedure

1) Configure User Accounts and Policies for Lifecycle Management

2) Configure the Remote Storage Tier

Use the mc ilm tier add command to add a new remote storage tier:

mc ilm tier add azure TARGET TIER_NAME \
   --account-name ACCOUNT \
   --account-key KEY \
   --bucket CONTAINER \
   --endpoint ENDPOINT \
   --prefix PREFIX \
   --storage-class STORAGE_CLASS

The example above uses the following arguments:

Argument	Description
TARGET <mc ilm tier add TARGET>	The alias <mc alias> of the MinIO deployment on which to configure the remote tier.
TIER_NAME <mc ilm tier add TIER_NAME>	The name to associate with the new Azure (Microsoft Azure) blob remote storage tier. Specify the name in all-caps, e.g. AZURE_TIER. This value is required in the next step.
ACCOUNT <mc ilm tier add --account-name>	The Storage Account <storage/common/storage-account-overview> to use as the remote storage resource. You cannot change this account name after creating the tier.
KEY <mc ilm tier add --account-key>	The corresponding shared account key for the specified ACCOUNT. The account key must have an assigned Azure policy with the required permissions <minio-lifecycle-management-transition-to-azure-permissions-remote>. See Managing storage account access keys <storage/common/storage-account-keys-manage> for more information.
CONTAINER <mc ilm tier add --bucket>	The name of the container on the Azure (Microsoft Azure) storage backend to which MinIO transitions objects.
ENDPOINT <mc ilm tier add --endpoint>	(Optional) The full URL of the Azure blob storage backend to which MinIO transitions objects. Defaults to https://ACCOUNT.blob.core.windows.net if not specified.
PREFIX <mc ilm tier add --prefix>	The optional container prefix within which MinIO transitions objects. MinIO stores all transitioned objects in the specified BUCKET under a unique per-deployment prefix value. Omit this argument to use only that value for isolating and organizing data within the remote storage. MinIO recommends specifying this optional prefix for remote storage tiers which contain other data, including transitioned objects from other MinIO deployments. This prefix should provide a clear reference back to the source MinIO deployment to facilitate ease of operations related to diagnostics, maintenance, or disaster recovery.
STORAGE_CLASS <mc ilm tier add --storage-class>	The Azure access tier MinIO applies to objects transitioned to the Azure container. MinIO tiering behavior depends on the remote storage returning objects immediately (milliseconds to seconds) upon request. MinIO therefore cannot support remote storage which requires rehydration, wait periods, or manual intervention. The following Azure access tiers meet MinIO's requirements as a remote tier: Hot Cool For more information, see Hot, cool, and archive access tiers for blob data <storage/blobs/access-tiers-overview.html>.

3) Create and Apply the Transition Rule

4) Verify the Transition Rule

Use the mc ilm rule ls command to review the configured transition rules:

mc ilm rule ls ALIAS/PATH --transition

• Replace ALIAS <mc ilm rule ls ALIAS> with the alias <mc alias> of the MinIO deployment.
• Replace PATH <mc ilm rule ls ALIAS> with the name of the bucket for which to retrieve the configured lifecycle management rules.