How to Install Nexus repository manager on Rocky Linux

In this blog we will see how to install Nexus repository manager on Rocky Linux. A free, open-source artifact management application called Sonatype Nexus assists you in efficiently managing artifacts throughout your software supply chain. For each component, it offers a single source of truth and native package management compatibility. It is compatible with the user and authentication solutions you already have, such as Atlassian Crowd and LDAP. IDEs and continuous integration tools such as Eclipse, IntelliJ, Visual Studio, Jenkins, and others are compatible with Sonatype Nexus.

System Requirements

• Rocky Linux 8 – refer How to Install Rocky Linux 8
• Non root user – nexus
• Find the RAM and CPU requirement as per the table below . For this blog I am going with “Small” profile size.

Profile Size	Profile Description	CPUs	Disk Size (Blob)	RAM	Heap Memory
Small	< 20 repositories< 20GB total blob store sizesingle repository format type	8	20GB	8GB	Min: 2703MMax: 2703M
Medium	< 50 repositories< 200GB total blob store sizea few repository formats	16	200GB	16GB	Min: 4GMax: 4G
Large	< 200 repositories> 200GB total blob store sizediverse repository formats	32+	200GB or more	32GB	Min: 8GMax: 8G
Very Large	200+ repositories~10TB total blob store sizediverse repository formats	32+	10TB or more	64GB	Min: 12GMax: 12G

Nexus Installation & Configuration

Installing JDK

Login to the Rocky Linux node using SSH. Make sure the system is up to date

sudo yum update -y 

Install the OpenJDK 1.8 package

sudo yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk.x86_64 -y

Download Nexus and Install

Let us start with creating the directory for the nexus packages and then move into the newly created diretory

sudo mkdir /app && cd /app

Let us download the latest nexus. You can get the latest Download Link from here.

 sudo wget -O latest-unix.tar.gz https://download.sonatype.com/nexus/3/latest-unix.tar.gz

Untar the file

sudo tar -xvf nexus.tar.gz

Renaming the untar file

sudo mv nexus-3* nexus

It is not recommended to operate the Nexus service with root rights as a prudent security practice. Thus, to launch the Nexus service, establish a new user called Nexus.

sudo adduser nexus

Changing the ownership of the nexus files and directories

sudo chown -R nexus:nexus /app/nexus
sudo chown -R nexus:nexus /app/sonatype-work

Edit the Nexus configuration file to define the nexus user

vi /app/nexus/bin/nexus.rc

Change the following lines as per below

run_as_user="nexus"

Save the file and exit

Creating the systemd file for Nexus

To use systemctl to control Nexus, it is preferable to have a systemd entry. For instructions on adding Nexus as a systemd service, see the section below.

Create the systemd unit file

sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/nexus.service

Add the following lines to the above file

[Unit]
Description=nexus service
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=forking
LimitNOFILE=65536
User=nexus
Group=nexus
ExecStart=/app/nexus/bin/nexus start
ExecStop=/app/nexus/bin/nexus stop
User=nexus
Restart=on-abort
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save and exit the file

Reload the systemd daemon

sudo systemctl daemon-reload 

Restart the service after enabling it at boot time

sudo systemctl enable nexus
sudo systemctl start nexus

Allowing Firewall Ports for Nexus

Using the Firewalld utility open the required firewall ports for Nexus. By default Nexus uses 8081/tcp port

sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=8081/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent

Accessing the Nexus Web Interface

By this point Nexus would have started and listens on port 8081. You can check it with the following command:

netstat -antp

You may see the output something like below

$ netstat -antp
(Not all processes could be identified, non-owned process info
 will not be shown, you would have to be root to see it all.)
Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:8081       0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      40890/java

Nexus’s default username is admin and the default password is stored in the /app/sonatype-work/nexus3/admin.password file. You can see the Nexus admin password with the following command:

cat /app/sonatype-work/nexus3/admin.password

You may see the Nexus admin password something like below :

9632dbd2-6d54-41a5-b3d3-e6adb1647654

You can Open the browser of your choice and use the URL http://your-ip-address:8081

http://your-ip-address:8081

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we explained how to install Nexus repository manager on Rocky Linux. But this blog will work fine with any other Operating system such as AlmaLinux or Oracle Linux. You can now start managing your packages across your software supply chain. For more information, visit the Nexus documentation.