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Installing KOTS in Existing Clusters Without Object Storage

This topic describes how to install Replicated KOTS in existing clusters without the default object storage, including limitations of installing without object storage.

Overview​

The Replicated KOTS Admin Console requires persistent storage for state. By default, KOTS deploys an S3-compatible object store to satisfy the Admin Console's persistent storage requirement. The Admin Console stores the following in object storage:

  • Support bundles
  • Application archives
  • Backups taken with Replicated snapshots that are configured to NFS or host path storage destinations

For more information about the Admin Console's persistent storage requirements, see Minimum System Requirements in Installation Requirements.

For existing cluster installations, KOTS deploys MinIO for object storage by default.

You can optionally install KOTS without object storage. When installed without object storage, KOTS deploys the Admin Console as a Statefulset with an attached PersistentVolume (PV) instead of as a deployment. In this case, support bundles and application archives are stored in the attached PV instead of in object storage. Additionally, for local snapshots storage, KOTS uses the local-volume-provider Velero plugin to store backups on local PVs instead of using object storage. The local-volume-provider plugin uses the existing Velero service account credentials to mount volumes directly to the Velero node-agent pods. For more information, see local-volume-provider in GitHub.

How to Install and Upgrade Without Object Storage​

To install KOTS without object storage in an existing cluster, you can use the --with-minio=false flag.

kots install --with-minio=false​

When --with-minio=false is used with the kots install command, KOTS does not deploy MinIO. KOTS deploys the Admin Console as a Statefulset with an attached PV instead of as a deployment. For command usage, see install.

kots admin-console upgrade --with-minio=false​

When --with-minio=false is used with the kots admin-console upgrade command, KOTS upgrades the existing Admin Console instance to the latest version, replaces the running deployment with a StatefulSet, and removes MinIO after a data migration. This results in temporary downtime for the Admin Console, but deployed applications are unaffected. For command usage, see admin-console upgrade.