Guide
1
Install requirements
EKS requires the AWS CLI and kubectl CLI.
- Download and install the AWS CLI
- Download and install kubectl CLI
2
Create the cluster
For this guide, we will use standard settings with the EBS CSI driver.
- Navigate to Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) and create a new cluster
- For Cluster service role, create a new IAM role with a descriptive name like
Nexus-eks-cluster-role
If you do not see the newly created role in the dropdown, click the refresh button in the UI.
- For Kubernetes version, select a version with standard support
- Choose Standard upgrade policy
- Add the Amazon EBS CSI Driver add-on for Nexus’s
Persistent Volume Claims - Keep the other default add-ons enabled
- Review and click Create
3
Add nodes
Once the cluster is active, add worker nodes where Nexus services will run.
- On the Cluster page, select the Compute tab and click Add node group
- Provide a Name for the group (e.g.,
Nexus-node-group) - For Node IAM role, either select an existing role used by your organization or create a new one.
Ensure the role has the
AmazonEBSCSIDriverPolicy attached so that PVCs can be fulfilled. If creating a role,
add this policy in addition to the default policies.- Replace the Instance types with
c5.2xlargemachines (orc5.4xlargeif you plan to scale beyond 100k documents) - Set Volume size in the 200GB - 800GB range depending on your document count
- For most setups, set the Desired size and Minimum size to 1. You can increase these later to scale up.
- Maximum unavailable can remain at the default
- Keep the default networking configuration and click Create
4
Create and connect a user
We will need an IAM user with CLI access to manage AWS and the cluster.
- Navigate to the IAM Dashboard, select Users in the left sidebar, and click Create user
-
Give the user a descriptive name (e.g.,
Nexus-eks-user) - Under permissions, click Attach policies directly and attach:
-
AmazonEKSClusterPolicy -
AmazonEKSServicePolicy - Click Create user
- On the user’s page, click Create access key and follow the prompts.
- Select the Command Line Interface (CLI) option during creation.
- Navigate back to the EKS cluster and select Access and then Create access entry
- In IAM principal, select the IAM ARN we just created, then click Next
- For Access policies, set Policy name to
AmazonEKSClusterAdminPolicy, then click Next and Create
5
Fetch kubeconfig
Log in to the AWS CLI and provide the access key and secret key from the IAM user we just created:Configure your kubeconfig to connect to the cluster by filling in the
region-code and cluster-name:Reference AWS EKS kubeconfig docs.
6
Install Nexus services
The Nexus Helm chart packages all the required services (API, web, PostgreSQL, Vespa, etc.)
into a single deployment. By default, persistent volumes will be created for stateful services.First, ensure the Add the Nexus Helm repository:Create a dedicated namespace and install Nexus:This will pull the latest Nexus chart and deploy all dependencies.
gp2 storage class is set as the default storage class (required for PVCs):7
Verify the installation
Running state before accessing Nexus.To check the API server logs (often the last to become ready):8
Access Nexus