To be able to use a Maven Cache Proxy (Mirror) or a local Maven Release Repository (Company Repo), Maven needs to be configured for that using settings.xml. When using lots of slaves, this becomes an administrative nightmare. Also it is unclear why the Maven plugin distributes complete Maven installations to the slaves, but is unable to distribute the information where the Mirror is located or what the Repository URL and password is.

The Config File Provider plugin solves this problem, hence it is more or less an essential part in virtually all production environments. Or in other words, I didn't see any use in having the Maven plugin bundled with Jenkins, while the Config File Provider is not!

So I want to propose to add the Config File Provider to the core Jenkins bundle. It simply looks like a bug that Jenkins comes with Maven but not with any facility to provide settings.xml to slaves.

A different approach could be to enhance the Maven plugin in a way that allows people to simply declare the URL and password of Nexus directly in the Maven installation panel, so the Maven plugin could patch this information into the default settings.xml it is installing on the slaves. This would be even the smartest solution!