[DISCUSSION] Docker MinIO image not available for Windows platform

[zhjwpku]

We encountered a CI failure on main and in a recent PR [1]:

docker run -d --name iceberg-minio \
  -p 9000:9000 -p 9001:9001 \
  -e MINIO_ROOT_USER=minio \
  -e MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD=minio123 \
  minio/minio:latest server /data --console-address :9001

Unable to find image 'minio/minio:latest' locally
latest: Pulling from minio/minio
docker: no matching manifest for windows(10.0.26100)/amd64 in the manifest list entries

It seems that the minio/minio:latest image no longer provide a Windows-compatible manifest, which causes failures on Windows runners.

There has been some discussion in the Apache Iceberg project about replacing MinIO with RustFS due to maintenance and security concerns [2]. However, even if we adopt RustFS, we would still face the same limitation, as it also does not provide Windows container images.

One suggestion (from @wgtmac) is to decouple S3-related testing from the Windows workflow: run S3-backed tests (e.g., against AWS or a compatible service) in a dedicated CI workflow, and disable that workflow on Windows. This would avoid relying on Windows-compatible Docker images for S3 emulation.

As a short-term approach, I propose that we continue using MinIO for Linux-based CI, while excluding S3-related tests from Windows jobs. In parallel, we can evaluate alternative S3-compatible solutions or a potential migration strategy in the future.

Thoughts?

[1] https://github.com/apache/iceberg-cpp/actions/runs/25410582555/job/74535575933?pr=639
[2] apache/iceberg#14638

[wgtmac]

Thanks @zhjwpku for proposing this! I think we can disable S3 (both build and test) in all current ci workflows to speed them up and then add a dedicated ci workflow on Ubuntu (and/or macOS) for this.

[zhjwpku]

It seems the MinIO error was not the cause of the CI failure. We fixed the actual issue by using the ilammy/msvc-dev-cmd action [1] instead of relying on a hardcoded vcvarsall.bat path.

But a dedicated S3 CI workflow still sounds useful.

[1] #643