Migrating to Nexus Repository 2 from Archiva

This section walks you through the process of migrating an existing Archiva installation to a new Nexus Repository Manager installation.

Archiva uses the file system to store hosted repositories and proxied repositories, making migration from Archiva to Nexus Repository Manager very simple. The following sections outline the process for migrating existing Archiva repositories to a new Nexus Repository Manager instance.

Archiva Managed Repositories are the equivalent of hosted repositories. To migrate a Managed Repository from Archiva to Nexus Repository Manager, do the following:

The following example will walk through the process of migrating the Archiva repository named internal, to a new Hosted repository named "internal". To view your managed repositories in Archiva, login to Archiva as an administrative user and click on the Repositories link in the left-hand navigation menu. Clicking on Repositories will list all of your Archiva Managed repositories as shown in Figure 22.1, “Archiva Managed Repositories”.

Figure 22.1. Archiva Managed Repositories

To migrate this Managed repository to a Hosted repository, find the directory in which Archiva stores all of the repository components. To do this, click on the Edit link listed next to the name of the repository you want to migrate as shown in Figure 22.1, “Archiva Managed Repositories”. Clicking on Edit should load the form shown in Figure 22.2, “Editing an Archiva Managed Repository”.

Figure 22.2. Editing an Archiva Managed Repository

Take note of the file path for Directory. The file path shown in Figure 22.2, “Editing an Archiva Managed Repository" is /data/repositories/internal. If Archiva is installed in /usr/local/archiva-1.2.1, it should correspond to the directory /usr/local/archiva-1.2.1/data/repositories/internal. You will use this path later in this section to copy the contents of your old Archiva Managed Repository to your new Hosted Repository.

Next, create a new hosted repository in Nexus Repository Manager with the same identifier and Name as the old Archiva Managed Repository. To do this, log into the user interface as an administrative user, click on Repositories in the left-hand main navigation menu, and then click on the Add drop-down as shown in Figure 22.3, “Creating a Hosted Repository”. Select Hosted Repository and then fill out the Repository ID and Repository Name to match the name of the old Archiva repository. If you are migrating a Snapshot repository, select a Repository Policy of Snapshot, and if you are migrating a Release repository select a Snapshot Policy of Release.

Figure 22.3. Creating a Hosted Repository

Now, you’ll need to copy the Archiva repository to the repository in the Nexus Repository Manager. You can do this by copying the contents of the Archiva repository directory to the repository storage directory. If we assume that Archiva is installed in /usr/local/archiva-1.2.1, Nexus Repository Manager is installed in /usr/local/nexus, and the Sonatype Work directory is /usr/local/sonatype-work. You can copy the contents of the Archiva managed repository to the new hosted repository by executing the following command:

$ cp -r /usr/local/archiva-1.2.1/data/repositories/internal/* \
/usr/local/sonatype-work/nexus/storage/internal/

If you are migrating to a repository manager instance on a different server, you can simply create an archive of the /usr/local/archiva-1.2.1/data/repositories/internal directory, copy it to the new server, and then decompress your repository archive in the appropriate directory.

Once the contents of the repository have been copied to the hosted repository, you must rebuild the repository index as shown in Figure 22.4, “Rebuilding the Index of a Hosted Repository”. Right-clicking on the repository in the list of repositories will display the context menu shown in the following figure.

Figure 22.4. Rebuilding the Index of a Hosted Repository

Once the migration is complete, you will be able to search and browse the contents of your newly migrated hosted repository.

Archiva allows you to define remote repositories and repository connectors to proxy remote repositories and cache remote components from remote repositories in Archiva Managed Repositories. While Nexus Repository Manager also provides Proxy repositories, there is one major difference between Nexus Repository Manager and Archiva. Where Nexus Repository Manager maintains a separate local storage directory for each proxy repository, Archiva combines cached remote components into a single file system with the contents of a managed repository. In other words, there is no good way to transfer an existing local cache of components between Archiva and Nexus Repository Manager without manually manipulating the contents of Archiva’s Managed Repository directory.

To recreate an Archiva repository connector in Nexus Repository Manager as a Proxy repository and to preserve the local cache of components from this repository. You’ll need to create a Proxy repository in Nexus Repository Manager, copy the contents of the existing proxy repository to the storage location for you new Proxy repository, and then rebuild the metadata of your new repository.

First step is to take a look at the Remote Repositories in your Archiva installation. Log in as an administrative user and then click on Repositories under the Administration menu in the left-hand Archiva navigation menu. Once you’ve clicked this link and loaded the list of repositories, scroll to the bottom of the page to see the list of remote repositories as shown in Figure 22.5, “Browsing Archiva Remote Repositories”.

Figure 22.5. Browsing Archiva Remote Repositories

Defining a proxy repository in Archiva involves associating one of the remote repositories defined in Figure 22.5, “Browsing Archiva Remote Repositories” with one of the Managed Repositories defined in Figure 22.1, “Archiva Managed Repositories”. Once you do this, requests for components from the managed repository will also query the remote repository. If a component is found in the remote repository, it will be retrieved and stored in the managed repository’s storage directory. To see a list of proxy connectors and the managed repositories with which they are associated, click on Proxy Connectors in the left-hand Archiva menu and you will see a list similar to that shown in Figure 22.6, “Archiva Proxy Connectors”.

Figure 22.6. Archiva Proxy Connectors

Click on the edit icon (or pencil) next to second Proxy Connector listed in Figure 22.6, “Archiva Proxy Connectors”, to load the settings form for this proxy connector shown in Figure 22.7, “Archiva Proxy Connector Settings”. You should use the settings for this proxy connect to configure your new proxy repository.

Figure 22.7. Archiva Proxy Connector Settings

To create a Proxy repository that will correspond to the Proxy Connector in Archiva, log into Nexus Repository Manager as an administrative user, and click on Repositories in the left-hand main menu. Once you can see a list of repositories, click on Add… and select Proxy Repository from the drop-down of repository types. In the New Proxy Repository form (shown in Figure 22.8, “Creating a Proxy Repository”) populate the repository ID, repository Name, and use the remote URL that was displayed in Figure 22.5, “Browsing Archiva Remote Repositories”. You will need to create a remote repository for every proxy connector that was defined in Archiva.

Figure 22.8. Creating a Proxy Repository

To expose this new Proxy repository in a Repository Group, create a new Repository Group or select an existing group by clicking on Repositories in the left-hand main menu. Click on a repository group and then select the Configuration tab to display the form shown in Figure 22.9, “Adding a Proxy Repository to a Repository Group”. In the Configuration tab you will see a list of Order Group Repositories and Available Repositories. Click and drag your new proxy repository to the list of Ordered Group Repositories, and click Save.

Figure 22.9. Adding a Proxy Repository to a Repository Group

Next, you will need to define repository groups that will tell Nexus Repository Manager to only locate certain components in the newly created proxy repository. In , Archiva defined three patterns that were used to filter components available from the proxy connector. These three patterns were "javax/", "com/sun/", and "org/jvnet/**". To recreate this behavior, define three Routes which will be applied to the group you configured in Figure 22.9, “Adding a Proxy Repository to a Repository Group”. To create a route, log in as an administrative user, and click on Routes under the Administration menu in the left-hand main menu. Click on Add.. and add three inclusive routes that will apply to the repository group you configured in Figure 22.9, “Adding a Proxy Repository to a Repository Group”.

Figure 22.10. Defining Routes