Installing Nexus Repository Pro with an H2 or PostgreSQL Database
Note
Only available in Sonatype Nexus Repository Pro. Interested in a free trial? Start here.
If you're standing up a new instance of Nexus Repository Pro and wish to begin in a new database mode, follow these instructions:
Installing Nexus Repository Pro
Download the latest Nexus Repository 3 version
Expand and install the archive as with the standard installation instructions
Follow the instructions for your chosen database
Configuring for the Embedded H2
Create the <data-dir>/etc/nexus.properties
file and add the following line:
nexus.datastore.enabled=true
You can now start your Nexus Repository instance and use an embedded H2 database.
Configuring for External PostgreSQL (Preferred)
Note
Before proceeding, see the PostgreSQL requirements in our System Requirements document and ensure you have the required trigram module installed.
To use an external PostgreSQL database, follow these additional instructions:
Create a database in a PostgreSQL server
Note
When creating your database, ensure it is set to use UTF8 as its character set in order to be compatible with Nexus Repository's character set. For more information, see the PostgreSQL documentation on setting your character set.
Create the
<data-dir>/etc/nexus.properties
file. Add a property to enable external database access:nexus.datastore.enabled=true
On first run only, add the following line, replacing the placeholders with the appropriate filepath to point to your valid Pro license:
nexus.licenseFile=/path/to/your/sonatype-license.lic
Create a
<data-dir>/etc/fabric
directoryIn the
<data-dir>/etc/fabric
directory,create a text file namednexus-store.properties
Below is a sample
nexus-store.properties
that you will need to update with the appropriate configuration.username=<postgres_user> password=<postgres_password> jdbcUrl=jdbc\:postgresql\://<database-host>\:<database-port>/<database-name>
Note that the JDBC URL format outside of the
nexus-store.properties
is in the following format (without the backslashes in thenexus-store.properties
file):jdbc:postgresql://<database-host>:<database-port>/<database-name>
Note
If using AWS Aurora as your database, you will need to include
gssEncMode=disable
as a query parameter of the JDBC URL.Note that you can also use the following JVM arguments to specify connection information; you can also specify these in the
sonatype-work/nexus3/etc/nexus.properties
file without the preceding-D
:-Dnexus.datastore.enabled
-Dnexus.datastore.nexus.jdbcUrl
-Dnexus.datastore.nexus.username
-Dnexus.datastore.nexus.password
You can also pass the following connectivity details as environment variables:
NEXUS_DATASTORE_NEXUS_JDBCURL
NEXUS_DATASTORE_NEXUS_USERNAME
NEXUS_DATASTORE_NEXUS_PASSWORD
Note
As of release 3.53.0, you must provide all required database connection fields (JDBC URL, username, password) through the same mechanism. Sonatype Nexus Repository will use the first of the following mechanisms that it encounters and will ignore the others (e.g., if you use environment variables, Sonatype Nexus Repository will ignore the system properties and nexus-store.properties file. Changes made through environment variables and system properties are not written to the nexus-store.properties file). This is evaluated each time you start Sonatype Nexus Repository. The priority order is as follows:
Environment variables
System Properties
sonatype-work/nexus3/etc/fabric/nexus-store.properties
You can now start your Nexus Repository instance and use a PostgreSQL database.
Sonatype Nexus Repository re-evaluates these configuration settings each time you restart an instance; changes will take effect upon restart.
Extra Configuration Options for PostgreSQL
You can configure maxPoolSize
and maxLifetime
through the same three methods as configuring database connections:
Environment variables
System properties
sonatype-work/nexus3/etc/fabric/nexus-store.properties file
Tip
Best Practices
You should use the same method to configure these extra options as you did for configuring the database connection fields.
If you are in a highly available (HA) or containerized (e.g., Kubernetes) environment, you should use environment variables or system properties to avoid having to configure multiple nexus-store.properties files.
Maximum Pool Size
Note
Note that, for high availability deployments, you must increase the number of connections that PostgreSQL allows so that your Maximum Connection Pool size does not exceed your the maximum number of allowed connections. See Prerequisite Step: Adjust max_connections.
Servers under heavy load may need increased connection pool size for the database. Nexus Repository uses a default pool of 100, but you may increase this through one of the following ways:
Pass an environment variable
Example: NEXUS_DATASTORE_NEXUS_ADVANCED="maximumPoolSize=200"
Use a JVM argument or specify directly in the sonatype-work/nexus3/etc/nexus.properties file without the preceding -D
Example: -Dnexus.datastore.nexus.advanced
In the nexus-store.properties file
Example:
username=<postgres_user> password=<postgres_password> jdbcUrl=jdbc\:postgresql\://<database-host>\:<database-port>/<database-name> advanced=maximumPoolSize\=200
Note that there are two possible settings in the nexus-store.properties file which use the following priority order:
maximumPoolSize=N
advanced=maximumPoolSize=N
If you set maxPoolSize, it will take precedence over the advanced setting
Sonatype Nexus Repository re-evaluates these configuration settings each time you restart an instance; changes will take effect upon restart.
Max Lifetime
If you use a container orchestration tool, relational database service, or other infrastructure to launch Nexus Repository, you should configure your maxLifetime
for database connections.
Ensure your maxLifetime
is set to be several seconds shorter than your infrastructure-imposed connection time limit.
By default, maxLifetime
is set to 30 minutes (1800000ms), but you may change this through one of the following methods:
Pass as an environment variable
Example: NEXUS_DATASTORE_NEXUS_ADVANCED="maxLifetime=840000"
Use a JVM argument or specify directly in the sonatype-work/nexus3/etc/nexus.properties file without the preceding -D
Example: -Dnexus.datastore.nexus.advanced
In the nexus-store.properties file
Example:
username=<postgres_user> password=<postgres_password> jdbcUrl=jdbc\:postgresql\://<database-host>\:<database-port>/<database-name> advanced=maxLifetime\=840000
Sonatype Nexus Repository re-evaluates these configuration settings each time you restart an instance; changes will take effect upon restart.
Set Multiple Advanced Settings
To set multiple advanced settings, delimit the values by "\n
" as shown in the following example:
advanced=maximumPoolSize\=200\nmaxLifetime\=840000
How Does Nexus Repository Pro Determine Which Database To Use
If you've omitted nexus.datastore.enabled
or set it to false
, then Nexus Repository will use OrientDB.
If you've configured nexus.datastore.enabled=true
, then Nexus Repository determines which database it is meant to use based on the configuration source.
Nexus Repository Pro will look for configuration information from <data-dir>/etc/fabric/
nexus-store.properties
before falling back to the embedded database, which is H2.
Tip
Sonatype Nexus Repository Pro users that have migrated away from the default OrientDB database can determine their current database by checking the JDBC URL displayed on the Data Store configuration screen:
If the JDBC URL references H2, then you are using an H2 database.
If the JDBC URL does not reference H2, then you are using a PostgreSQL database.
If you are a Sonatype Nexus Repository Pro customer and have not migrated from the default OrientDB database, you will not see the Data Store option.
If you are using Sonatype Nexus Repository OSS, you will not see the Data Store option and will be using the default OrientDB database as no other database options are available for OSS deployments.