# The copy of the Nexus 3.78.2-04 environment fails to start

**URL:** <https://community.sonatype.com/t/the-copy-of-the-nexus-3-78-2-04-environment-fails-to-start/16050>\
**Category:** Sonatype Nexus Repository\
**Tags:** nexus-repository\
**Created:** [February 12, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://community.sonatype.com/t/the-copy-of-the-nexus-3-78-2-04-environment-fails-to-start/16050 "2026-02-12T20:14:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![itperfecto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed8c4c/32.png) [@itperfecto](https://community.sonatype.com/u/itperfecto)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://community.sonatype.com/t/the-copy-of-the-nexus-3-78-2-04-environment-fails-to-start/16050/1 "2026-02-12T20:14:19Z")

</div>

I need to make a test copy of my Nexus Repository Manager  
(I want to test upgrading to a new version and conduct other tests)

I have:

**1. A virtual machine with Nexus 3.78.2-04**  
**2. 5 BLOB Store volumes**  
**3. An external PostgreSQL instance with the Nexus database**

I create a copy of the virtual machine, a copy of the BLOB volumes, and a copy of the Nexus database.  
I configure the nexus.properties file to use the new database instance.  
I start Nexus and get this error:

```auto
INFO [jetty-main-1] *SYSTEM org.sonatype.nexus.extender.guice.NexusLifecycleManager - Start RESTORE
INFO [jetty-main-1] *SYSTEM org.sonatype.nexus.extender.guice.NexusLifecycleManager - Start UPGRADE
ERROR [jetty-main-1] *SYSTEM org.sonatype.nexus.upgrade.datastore.internal.UpgradeManagerImpl - Missing migrations: [SearchCapabilityStep_2_16, TrustedCertificatesMigrationStep_2_17, NodeHeartBeatMigrationStep_2_17_1, ConanCleanupMigrationStep_2_18]
ERROR [jetty-main-1] *SYSTEM org.sonatype.nexus.upgrade.datastore.internal.UpgradeManagerImpl - Missing migrations: [SearchCapabilityStep_2_16, TrustedCertificatesMigrationStep_2_17, NodeHeartBeatMigrationStep_2_17_1, ConanCleanupMigrationStep_2_18]
ERROR [jetty-main-1] *SYSTEM org.sonatype.nexus.upgrade.datastore.internal.UpgradeServiceImpl - Failed transition: NEW -> STARTED
org.sonatype.nexus.upgrade.datastore.UpgradeException: The database appears to be from a later version of Nexus Repository

```

Where does this error come from? Why doesn’t this issue occur in PROD — same Nexus version, same configuration, same database?

When I check the table **flyway\_schema\_history** via **psql** , I see these rows:

```auto
77 | 2.16 | SearchCapabilityStep_2_16 | JDBC | org.sonatype.nexus.upgrade.datastore.internal.NexusJavaMigration | | nexus | 2026-02-12 19:21:32.094611 | 108 | t
78 | 2.17 | TrustedCertificatesMigrationStep_2_17 | JDBC | org.sonatype.nexus.upgrade.datastore.internal.NexusJavaMigration | | nexus | 2026-02-12 19:21:32.210998 | 169 | t
79 | 2.17.1 | NodeHeartBeatMigrationStep_2_17_1 | JDBC | org.sonatype.nexus.upgrade.datastore.internal.NexusJavaMigration | | nexus | 2026-02-12 19:21:32.385536 | 1 | t
80 | 2.18 | ConanCleanupMigrationStep_2_18 | JDBC | org.sonatype.nexus.upgrade.datastore.internal.NexusJavaMigration | | nexus | 2026-02-12 19:21:32.39139 | 6 | t

```

These migrations are not new (none are above version 3.78). Why is the error occurring?

According to what I found online:

_SearchCapabilityStep\_2\_16 — Nexus 3.74.0_  
_Introduced in March 2024_  
_Part of search capability updates_

_TrustedCertificatesMigrationStep\_2\_17 — Nexus 3.75.0_  
_April 2024_  
_Migration for the trusted certificates system_

_NodeHeartBeatMigrationStep\_2\_17\_1 — Nexus 3.75.1_  
_April–May 2024_  
_Update to the cluster node heartbeat mechanism_

_ConanCleanupMigrationStep\_2\_18 — Nexus 3.76.0_  
_May–June 2024_  
_Cleanup improvements for the Conan package manager_

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jacob\_Arcila\_Cardenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/97f17d/32.png) [@Jacob\_Arcila\_Cardenas](https://community.sonatype.com/u/Jacob_Arcila_Cardenas)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2026, 8:37pm UTC](https://community.sonatype.com/t/the-copy-of-the-nexus-3-78-2-04-environment-fails-to-start/16050/2 "2026-02-12T20:37:46Z")

</div>

Your database appears to be ahead of Nexus 3.78.2. The “Missing migrations” error means the migration Java classes are missing from your Nexus version — not from the database. Your database has records of migrations (2.16–2.18) that were applied by a newer Nexus version, but 3.78.2 doesn’t contain those classes. On startup, Nexus validates that every recorded migration has a corresponding class in its codebase and fails when it can’t find them.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![itperfecto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed8c4c/32.png) [@itperfecto](https://community.sonatype.com/u/itperfecto)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2026, 9:04pm UTC](https://community.sonatype.com/t/the-copy-of-the-nexus-3-78-2-04-environment-fails-to-start/16050/4 "2026-02-12T21:04:09Z")

</div>

Thank you for the response.

1. Yes, I fully understand that, but on PROD, the same Nexus version is running with the same database and starts up without any issues. If that were the case, PROD should also fail to start with a similar error! How is Nexus currently starting there?
2. How could the database have a newer version if I have never upgraded it and was only planning to do so now?
3. And which version of Nexus introduced support for these migration types?  
SearchCapabilityStep\_2\_16  
TrustedCertificatesMigrationStep\_2\_17  
NodeHeartBeatMigrationStep\_2\_17\_1  
ConanCleanupMigrationStep\_2\_18

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jacob\_Arcila\_Cardenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/97f17d/32.png) [@Jacob\_Arcila\_Cardenas](https://community.sonatype.com/u/Jacob_Arcila_Cardenas)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2026, 9:29pm UTC](https://community.sonatype.com/t/the-copy-of-the-nexus-3-78-2-04-environment-fails-to-start/16050/5 "2026-02-12T21:29:54Z")

</div>

1. Check the PROD database migration history  
Run this query on the PROD database to verify if these migrations exist:

```auto
  SELECT version, description, installed_on                                                                                                                           
  FROM flyway_schema_history                                                                                                                                          
  WHERE version IN ('2.16', '2.17', '2.17.1', '2.18')                                                                                                                 
  ORDER BY version;

```

1. Check if your test environment ever ran Nexus 3.84+  
If you (or anyone) temporarily started Nexus 3.84+ against this database it would have executed these migrations and recorded them in  
flyway\_schema\_history. This would cause the current error when trying to run an older version.
2. Migration version timeline  
Upon inspection of the codebase, these migrations were introduced in the following Nexus versions:  
- SearchCapabilityStep\_2\_16 → Nexus 3.80.0  
- TrustedCertificatesMigrationStep\_2\_17 → Nexus 3.81.0  
- NodeHeartBeatMigrationStep\_2\_17\_1 → Nexus 3.83.1  
- ConanCleanupMigrationStep\_2\_18 → Nexus 3.84.0

These migrations do not exist in Nexus 3.78.x or earlier.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![itperfecto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed8c4c/32.png) [@itperfecto](https://community.sonatype.com/u/itperfecto)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2026, 10:04pm UTC](https://community.sonatype.com/t/the-copy-of-the-nexus-3-78-2-04-environment-fails-to-start/16050/6 "2026-02-12T22:04:48Z")

</div>

I’m observing some very strange things:

The source database from PROD does not contain these migrations:

```auto
 2.10 | MalwareRemediatorMigrationStep_2_10 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.391332
 2.11 | BlobstoreSecretsMigrationStep_2_11 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.401848
 2.12 | HuggingFaceProxyDatabaseMigrationStep_2_12 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.409103
 2.13 | CoordinateMigrationStep_2_13 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.414425
 2.14 | RemoveDistributedCooperationMigrationStep_2_14 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.421736
 2.15 | RemoveLog4JVisualizer_2_15 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.427006
         | AzureBlobStoreMetricsMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.433933
         | CargoRealmMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.445771
         | ComponentNormalizedVersionMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:13.100327
         | ComposerRemovePackagesUpgradeStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:13.184128
         | ConanVersionInstallDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:13.188818
         | CopyAssetBlobSizeMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:13.19446
         | DistributedEventsUpgrade | 2025-03-26 19:34:13.200186
         | FileBlobStoreMetricsMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.293328
         | GoogleBlobStoreMetricsMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.380683
         | NpmPCCSAndFirewallAuditCapabilityOutOfSyncMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.390015
         | NugetV2ComponentCountCleanupMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.404867
         | PypiGenerateMissingSha256ChecksumsMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.41218
         | RubygemsHashAndAttributesMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.423086
         | RubygemsHostedMarkDirtyGemInfoMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.428415
         | S3BlobStoreMetricsMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.433919
         | Z_002_ApiKeySecretsDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.441775
         | NodeHeartbeatDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:56.962545
         | ReplicationUseTrustStoreDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:56.981074
         | SamlUserDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:56.990907
         | UserTokenDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:56.996733
         | UserTokenToApiKeyMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:57.02031
         | Z_001_UserTokenLdapSamlDualRealmUserTokensMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:57.025956
(76 rows)

```

But after making a backup of the database and restoring it on another instance (without starting Nexus), I see this:

```auto
 2.10 | MalwareRemediatorMigrationStep_2_10 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.391332
 2.11 | BlobstoreSecretsMigrationStep_2_11 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.401848
 2.12 | HuggingFaceProxyDatabaseMigrationStep_2_12 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.409103
 2.13 | CoordinateMigrationStep_2_13 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.414425
 2.14 | RemoveDistributedCooperationMigrationStep_2_14 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.421736
 2.15 | RemoveLog4JVisualizer_2_15 | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.427006
         | AzureBlobStoreMetricsMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.433933
         | CargoRealmMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:12.445771
         | ComponentNormalizedVersionMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:13.100327
         | ComposerRemovePackagesUpgradeStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:13.184128
         | ConanVersionInstallDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:13.188818
         | CopyAssetBlobSizeMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:34:13.19446
         | DistributedEventsUpgrade | 2025-03-26 19:34:13.200186
         | FileBlobStoreMetricsMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.293328
         | GoogleBlobStoreMetricsMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.380683
         | NpmPCCSAndFirewallAuditCapabilityOutOfSyncMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.390015
         | NugetV2ComponentCountCleanupMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.404867
         | PypiGenerateMissingSha256ChecksumsMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.41218
         | RubygemsHashAndAttributesMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.423086
         | RubygemsHostedMarkDirtyGemInfoMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.428415
         | S3BlobStoreMetricsMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.433919
         | Z_002_ApiKeySecretsDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-26 19:35:07.441775
         | NodeHeartbeatDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:56.962545
         | ReplicationUseTrustStoreDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:56.981074
         | SamlUserDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:56.990907
         | UserTokenDatabaseMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:56.996733
         | UserTokenToApiKeyMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:57.02031
         | Z_001_UserTokenLdapSamlDualRealmUserTokensMigrationStep | 2025-03-27 14:25:57.025956
 2.16 | SearchCapabilityStep_2_16 | 2026-02-12 21:50:35.368149
 2.17 | TrustedCertificatesMigrationStep_2_17 | 2026-02-12 21:50:35.506726
 2.17.1 | NodeHeartBeatMigrationStep_2_17_1 | 2026-02-12 21:50:35.683737
 2.18 | ConanCleanupMigrationStep_2_18 | 2026-02-12 21:50:35.690401
         | AzureSoftDeletedBlobsMigrationStep | 2026-02-12 21:50:35.704125
         | DistributedEventsUpgrade | 2026-02-12 21:50:35.713569
         | HuggingFaceExternalMetadataMigrationStep | 2026-02-12 21:50:35.719896
         | ReconcileTaskMigrationStep | 2026-02-12 21:50:35.727826
         | ScheduleS3CompactTasksMigrationStep | 2026-02-12 21:50:35.736142
(85 rows)

```

Where are these migrations coming from?? oO

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jacob\_Arcila\_Cardenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/97f17d/32.png) [@Jacob\_Arcila\_Cardenas](https://community.sonatype.com/u/Jacob_Arcila_Cardenas)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 3:42pm UTC](https://community.sonatype.com/t/the-copy-of-the-nexus-3-78-2-04-environment-fails-to-start/16050/7 "2026-02-17T15:42:58Z")

</div>

I only thing that I could think of is that you may have another nexus process running (or attempting to connect) to this database with a newer version than 3.78.2-04. note the date on the installed\_on column 2026-02-12 21:50:35.736142

You may want to check:

1. Check for any running Nexus processes on all your servers
2. Review active database connections to your test PostgreSQL instance to  
see what’s connected.
3. Check your Nexus configuration files to ensure no other instances  
point to this database.