Nexus Repository

Key Features

• Universal repository format support including Maven, npm, Docker, PyPI, NuGet, RubyGems, Conan, and 30+ other package types
• Repository proxying with intelligent caching to reduce external bandwidth usage and provide offline access to dependencies
• Multi-port architecture with dedicated Docker registry port (8082) and configurable protocol-specific endpoints
• Built-in vulnerability scanning and component intelligence with detailed security reports for stored artifacts
• Repository grouping functionality to combine multiple repositories into single logical endpoints for simplified client configuration
• Advanced search capabilities with component metadata indexing and dependency relationship mapping
• Role-based access control with LDAP/Active Directory integration and fine-grained repository permissions
• Cleanup policies for automated artifact lifecycle management and storage optimization

Common Use Cases

• 1Enterprise artifact management for organizations with multiple development teams using different programming languages and package managers
• 2CI/CD pipeline acceleration by providing local caching of external dependencies to reduce build times and bandwidth costs
• 3Air-gapped development environments where teams need offline access to external package repositories
• 4Docker registry hosting for private container images with integrated vulnerability scanning before deployment
• 5Software supply chain security implementation with policy enforcement and component approval workflows
• 6Multi-environment artifact promotion from development through staging to production with controlled release processes
• 7Open source license compliance management by tracking and analyzing component licenses across all artifacts

Prerequisites

• Minimum 4GB RAM allocated to Docker (Nexus Repository Manager requires 2-4GB heap space depending on repository size)
• At least 20GB available disk space for the nexus_data volume (artifact storage grows significantly over time)
• Ports 8081, 8082, and 8083 available on the host system without conflicts from other services
• Basic understanding of repository management concepts and the specific package managers your organization uses
• Administrative access to configure firewall rules if deploying in corporate networks with strict access controls
• Knowledge of your organization's LDAP/Active Directory structure if planning to integrate authentication systems

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  nexus: 
3    image: sonatype/nexus3:latest
4    container_name: nexus
5    restart: unless-stopped
6    volumes: 
7      - nexus_data:/nexus-data
8    ports: 
9      - "8081:8081"
10      - "8082:8082"
11      - "8083:8083"
12
13volumes: 
14  nexus_data: 

.env Template

1# Get admin password:
2# docker exec nexus cat /nexus-data/admin.password

Usage Notes

Quick Start

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  nexus:
5    image: sonatype/nexus3:latest
6    container_name: nexus
7    restart: unless-stopped
8    volumes:
9      - nexus_data:/nexus-data
10    ports:
11      - "8081:8081"
12      - "8082:8082"
13      - "8083:8083"
14
15volumes:
16  nexus_data:
17EOF
18
19# 2. Create the .env file
20cat > .env << 'EOF'
21# Get admin password:
22# docker exec nexus cat /nexus-data/admin.password
23EOF
24
25# 3. Start the services
26docker compose up -d
27
28# 4. View logs
29docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/nexus-repository/run | bash

Troubleshooting