Nexus-Maven Integration

In this article we will see how we can integrate Maven with nexus and push our artifacts to the nexus repository.

1. Install and configure maven.

2. Once maven is configured , a local repository is created. The maven local repository is a local folder that is used to store all your project’s dependencies (plugin jars and other files which are downloaded by Maven). In simple, when you build a Maven project, all dependency files will be stored in your Maven local repository.

By default, Maven local repository is default to .m2 folder:

1. Unix/Mac OS X – ~/.m2
2. Windows – C:\Documents and Settings\{your-username}\.m2 

The local repository contains a settings.xml file which contains the configuration dertails.

3. Make changes to the settings.xml file for making our artifacts go to the Nexus repository.

There will 2 users ID admin for admin operations and deployment for deploy operations.

Add the below content to the ~/.m2/setting.xml as

Add the nexus Mirror with the location where nexus is running as,

  <mirrors>

    <mirror>

      <id>nexus</id>

      <mirrorOf>*</mirrorOf>

      <name>Human Readable Name for this Mirror.</name>

      <url>http://puppet.jas.com:8081/nexus/content/groups/public</url>

    </mirror>

  </mirrors>

Add a server location which  Specifies the authentication information to use when connecting to a particular server, identified by

 <server>

    <id>nexus</id>

    <username>deployment</username>

    <password>deployment123</password>

 </server>

4. Once the changes are done. let’s try to build a artifact and push to the nexus. Create a maven application or Download the javaee7-simple-sample application from the GITHUB location https://github.com/javaee-samples/javaee7-simple-sample

Add the distribution Management element to the pom.xml file as

 <distributionManagement>
        <repository>
            <id>nexus</id>
            <name>Internal Releases</name>
            <url>http://puppet.jas.com:8081/nexus/content/repositories/releases/</url>
        </repository>
       <snapshotRepository>
            <id>nexus</id>
            <name>Internal Snapshot Releases</name>
            <url>http://puppet.jas.com:8081/nexus/content/repositories/snapshots/</url>
        </snapshotRepository>
   </distributionManagement>

In the URL’s, add the URL where the nexus Repository is running.

5. Once the changes are done. Run the “mvn clean deploy” command 

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Nexus – HTTPS Configuration

Since we use nexus as a part of warehouse for our organization that contains all our building blocks and software, it is very important to secure the access to nexus. Nexus is normally access over HTTP. If we do the communications over normal http, this traffic can be intercepted with any network sniffer and credentials can be read. Using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) communication with the repository manager is an important security feature and a recommended best practice. 

In this article we will see how we can configure nexus over HTTPS.

1. add the ssl port to the nexus.properties file

application-port-ssl=9443

application-port-ssl=9091

2. We need to create a Key store file for configuring the nexus with ssl. We need to have a password for creating the keystore. The same password needs to be used in the configuration file too. If we use the plain text password in configuration file it may lead to a security breach. So we Obfuscate password.

Password can be Obfuscated using,

[root@puppet lib]# java -cp NEXUS_HOME/lib/jetty-util-8.1.16.v20140903.jar org.eclipse.jetty.util.security.Password changeit changeit

OBF:1vn21ugu1saj1v9i1v941sar1ugw1vo0

MD5:b91cd1a54781790beaa2baf741fa6789

jetty-util-8.1.16.v20140903.jar - NEXUS_HOME/lib contains the jetty-util jar. Use thejar based on the version. I have the jetty-util-8.1.16.v20140903.jar in the nexus iam using.

3. Now once we have the password obfuscated we now create the keystore using the same password as above “changeit”.

keytool -genkey -noprompt -keystore NEXUS_HOME/conf/keystore.jks -alias nexus-alias -keyalg RSA -keypass changeit -storepass changeit -dname "CN=master.apple.com, OU=ID, O=artl, L=jags, S=macnhala, C=GB" 

Now the keystore file is stored in NEXUS_HOME/conf location.

4. Now make the changes to the jetty-https.xml configuration for the addConnector section as,

<Set name="keyStore"> NEXUS_HOME/conf/keystore.jks</Set>

<Set name="trustStore"> NEXUS_HOME/conf/keystore.jks</Set>

<Set name="keyStorePassword">1vn21ugu1saj1v9i1v941sar1ugw1vo0</Set>

<Set name="keyManagerPassword">1vn21ugu1saj1v9i1v941sar1ugw1vo0</Set>

<Set name="trustStorePassword">1vn21ugu1saj1v9i1v941sar1ugw1vo0</Set>

For the Store password, we change the value with Obfuscated password.

5. Don’t make any changes to the jetty-http-redirect-to-https.xml file. This file is used to redirect http to https automatically. Whenever we access the nexus URL with http it automatically directs to https.

6. Make the last changes to the NEXUS_HOME/bin/jsw/conf/wrapper.conf file with below contents as,

wrapper.app.parameter.3= NEXUS_HOME/conf/jetty-https.xml

wrapper.app.parameter.4= NEXUS_HOME/conf/jetty-http-redirect-to-https.xml

7. Start the nexus application using NEXUS_HOME/bin/nexus restart

8. Access the application using http://localhost:9091/nexus which will automatically redirect to https://localhost:9443/nexus

More to Come, Happy learning J

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Artifactory - Nexus

Before starting to understand what nexus is and how it can be used we need to understand what a software repository is. A Software repository is a storage location from which software packages may be retrieved and installed on the computer (according to WIKI).

So an artifactory repository is a binary repository manager. Much like source control that we use for our code (SVN, GIT) we use artifactory repository manager for storing and sharing our binary artifacts like jar and war. Artifactory is also a place where you can put a shared library so that it is easily accessible in other projects across the enterprise.

Many programming languages maintain their artifactory so that other users can download from that artifactory repository. An artifactory provide Operators on repositories like a package management system, tools intended to search for, install and otherwise manipulate software packages from the repositories

So why do we need a artifactory repository tool.

1. Re-building from source introduces points of failures. BY having the artifact in a binary repository manager we can down and use which will be a versioned copy of the tested artifact

2. Since the binaries are version it is easy to have multiple versions of libraries so that all projects do not have to be on the same version.

Repository types – There are different types of repositories available in nexus such as,

Virtual repositories - “virtual repositories” are proxies to all of the “well known” repositories on the internet. This give you access to most of the public shared libraries such as Apache Commons, Spring, Hibernate, etc..; through one conduit.

Proxy Repository - Is a repository with the type proxy, also known as a proxy repository, is a repository that is linked to a remote repository.Any request for a component is verified against the local content of the proxy repository. If no local component is found, the request is forwarded to the remote repository. The component is then retrieved and stored locally in the repository manager, which acts as a cache. Subsequent requests for the same component are then fulfilled from the local storage, therefore eliminating the network bandwidth and time overhead of retrieving the component from the remote repository again.

Hosted Repository - A repository with the type hosted, also known as a hosted repository, is a repository that stores components in the repository manager as the authoritative location for these components.

In this article we will see how we can configure nexus repository and use,

1.  Nexus comes with 2 flavors “Nexus Repository Manager Pro” and “Nexus Repository Manager OSS”.

Nexus Repository Manager OSS is a fully-featured repository manager which can be freely used, customized, and distributed under the Eclipse Public License.

Nexus Repository Manager Pro is a distribution with features that are relevant to large enterprises and organizations which require complex procurement and staging workflows in addition to more advanced LDAP integration, Atlassian Crowd support, and other development infrastructure. This is available for a 30 days trail.

2. Download the “Nexus Repository Manager OSS” from http://www.sonatype.com/download-oss-sonatype

3. Unzip or Tar based on the file you downloaded using

unzip nexus-2.13.0-01-bundle.zip OR tar xvzf nexus-2.13.0-01-bundle.tar.gz

4. Before starting nexus ,we need to make a few changes to the nexus.properties file in NEXUS_HOME/conf/nexus.properties

Change the nexus-work=<Location to store the nexus runtime Data>

Change the application-port to a port number where we can access the nexus Browser.

4. Once saved, start the nexus using NEXUS_HOME/bin/nexus start.

More to Come, Happy learning J

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