Smart Remote Repositories

A Smart Remote repository is a remote repository that proxies a local, remote, or Federated repository from another instance of Artifactory or an Edge node. In addition to the usual benefits of Remote Repositories, Smart Remote repositories offer several additional benefits:

Reported download statistics

Artifactory maintains download statistics for repositories so you can evaluate if artifacts are still being used and manage your cleanup policies. When you proxy a repository in another instance of Artifactory and cache an artifact downloaded from the other instance, the distant Artifactory is not aware if users on your end continue to use the artifact (by downloading it from your local cache), and may end up cleaning up the original artifact. An Artifactory Smart Remote Repository lets you notify the distant instance whenever a cached artifact is downloaded, so it can update an internal counter for remote downloads.

Synchronized properties

When you proxy a repository in another instance of Artifactory and cache an artifact downloaded from it, you may not be aware of changes that may have been made to the original artifact’s properties if they are changed after you cache it. By synchronizing properties, any changes to artifact properties in the remote instance are propagated to your cached instance of the artifact.

Remote repository browsing

You can browse the contents of the repository in the remote Artifactory instance for all package types, even if none of its artifacts have been cached in your instance of Artifactory. This enables you to browse remote files as if they were local without having to request a particular file.

Source absence detection

When viewing a cached artifact, Artifactory will indicate if the original artifact in the remote instance has been deleted. This enables you to copy the artifact from your remote repository cache to a local repository to maintain access to it.