This guide gives you some handy hints to upgrade from an archiva 1.0.x instance to a version 1.1.x.
It also describes where settings in archiva 1.0.x are stored in archiva 1.1.x, which ones have to be kept, updated or removed...
Many things have improved, and the upgrade to 1.1+ will fix a timeout issue if a remote proxy doesn't reply. See release notes for details.
How to Upgrade
See also: http://archiva.apache.org/docs/1.1.2/adminguide/standalone.html#Upgrading%20Archiva (replace 1.1.2 in that link with the version number you are upgrading to)
...