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Nexus Repository UI Hangs Initializing due to 500 Error on extdirect-prod.js

Updated

Symptoms

  • The Nexus Repository UI hangs on "Initializing..." and never loads.
  • In browser developer tools (Network tab), the request to static/rapture/extdirect-prod.js returns a 500 Server Error.
  • The response body is empty or shows an error, and other static resources may load successfully.
  • Example screenshot:

Cause

  • This issue is typically caused when files or directories under the Nexus Repository's temporary work directory (commonly sonatype-work/nexus3/tmp ) are deleted or manipulated while the repository is running.
  • Specifically, deleting or altering the following directories can trigger this problem:
    • sonatype-work/nexus3/tmp/nexus-ehcache
    • sonatype-work/nexus3/tmp/nexus-extdirect
  • These directories contain temporary files (such as .lock files and JavaScript files like api.js) that are required for the UI to function. If these files are missing or corrupted, requests for extdirect-prod.js will fail with a 500 error, causing the UI to hang at initialization.
  • This has been confirmed in multiple support cases, where manual cleanup or disk space recovery efforts inadvertently removed these critical files while Nexus was running.

Solution

  • Do not manually delete or modify files in the tmp directory while Nexus Repository is running.
  • If you encounter this issue:
    • Check the contents of the nexus-ehcache and nexus-extdirect directories under your tmp directory.
    • If files are missing, restart the Nexus Repository service. On restart, Nexus will regenerate the necessary files in these directories - ensure the tmp directory file permissions allow this.
    • After restart, verify that the UI loads correctly - ensure Browser caches are cleared.
  • Investigate and disable any automated processes or scripts that may be cleaning up the tmp directory while Nexus is running.

Additional Notes

  • If you have a backup or another instance of the same Nexus version, you may be able to copy the missing files (api.js, api-debug.js, etc.) into the appropriate directory to restore functionality without a restart, but this has a risk of not working - a restart is the recommended and safest approach.
  • Always ensure that only one Nexus process is accessing the data directory to avoid file locking issues

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