How to Determine the Location of the Nexus Repository 3 Data Directory

Determine Your Nexus Repository 3 Data Directory From Install Files

Go to the install directory of Nexus Repository created using the Nexus Installer program. It should contain a directory called ./bin/nexus.vmoptions. Inside the file, look for the line containing -Dkaraf.data= . The value of this property is the Nexus Repository data directory.

If the value is a relative path, then it is relative to the install directory, not the ./bin directory containing the vmoptions file. 

Determine Your Nexus Repository 3 Data Directory From Log Files

Use grep or another tool to look for log lines inside nexus.log files.

zgrep 'karaf.data' sonatype-work/nexus3/log/nexus*

The following sample log line reports where the data directory is located based on karaf.data property value:

2020-05-06 14:26:55,419-0300 INFO  [FelixStartLevel]  *SYSTEM org.sonatype.nexus.bootstrap.ConfigurationBuilder -   karaf.data='/Users/example/app/nexus-installer-3.23.0-03-mac-archive/sonatype-work/nexus3'

Determine Your Nexus Repository 3 Data Directory From the Command Line

If Nexus Repository is running, you can print the command line that started Nexus Repository from your active process list to determine your data directory.

ps -ef | grep NexusMain
20347 ttys000    0:25.28 /app/nexus3/nexus-3.0.0-b2016011501/.install4j/jre.bundle/Contents/Home/jre/bin/java -server -Dinstall4j.jvmDir=/app/nexus3/nexus-3.0.0-b2016011501/.install4j/jre.bundle/Contents/Home/jre -Dexe4j.moduleName=/app/nexus3/nexus-3.0.0-b2016011501/bin/nexus -Dinstall4j.launcherId=245 -Dinstall4j.swt=false -Di4jv=0 -Di4jv=0 -Di4jv=0 -Di4jv=0 -Di4jv=0 -Xms1200M -Xmx1200M -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions -XX:+UnsyncloadClass -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Dkaraf.home=. -Dkaraf.base=. -Dkaraf.etc=etc -Djava.util.logging.config.file=etc/java.util.logging.properties -Dkaraf.data=/app/nexus3/data -Djava.io.tmpdir=/app/nexus3/data/tmp -Dkaraf.startLocalConsole=false -Di4j.vpt=true -classpath /app/nexus3/nexus-3.0.0-b2016011501/.install4j/i4jruntime.jar:/app/nexus3/nexus-3.0.0-b2016011501/lib/boot/nexus-main.jar:/app/nexus3/nexus-3.0.0-b2016011501/lib/boot/org.apache.karaf.main-4.0.4.jar:/app/nexus3/nexus-3.0.0-b2016011501/lib/boot/org.osgi.core-6.0.0.jar:/app/nexus3/nexus-3.0.0-b2016011501/lib/boot/org.apache.karaf.diagnostic.boot-4.0.4.jar:/app/nexus3/nexus-3.0.0-b2016011501/lib/boot/org.apache.karaf.jaas.boot-4.0.4.jar com.install4j.runtime.launcher.UnixLauncher run 9d17dc87   org.sonatype.nexus.karaf.NexusMain

Look for the value of karaf.data. In the above example output we can see -Dkaraf.data=/app/nexus3/data so the location of the data directory is /app/nexus3/data.

Determine Your Nexus Repository 3 Data Directory From the UI

Sign in to Nexus Repository as an Administrator. Navigate to Support -> System information. Find the section titled nexus-configuration. The value of the workingDirectory attribute is your data directory.