Set a JDBC provider using the admin console


 

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To create connections between an application and a relational database, the appserver uses the driver implementation classes that are encapsulated by the

Each JDBC provider is essentially an object that represents vendor-specific JDBC driver classes to the appserver, for establishing access to that particular vendor database. JDBC providers are prerequisites for data sources, which supply applications with the physical connections to a database.

Consult the JDBC provider table to identify the appropriate JDBC provider for the database and application requirements.

Set at least one JDBC provider for each database server that you plan to use at a particular scope within the appserver environment.

  1. Open the admin console.

  2. Go to...

    Resources | JDBC | JDBC Providers

  3. Select the scope at which applications can use the JDBC provider. The scope that you select becomes the scope of any data source that you associate with this provider. We can choose a cell, node, cluster, or server.

  4. Click New. This action causes the Create a new JDBC Provider wizard to launch.

  5. Use the first drop-down list to select the database type of the JDBC provider that we need to create.

    Select User-Defined for the database type if we encounter either of the following scenarios:

    • You do not see the database type.
    • We cannot select the JDBC provider type that we need in the next step.

    The user-defined selection triggers the wizard panel to display the provider type as a user-defined JDBC provider, and the implementation type as user-defined. Consult the database documentation for the JDBC driver class files, data source properties, and so on that are required for the user-defined provider. Supply this information on the next two panels:

  6. Select the JDBC provider type if it is displayed in the second drop-down list.

    Select Show Deprecated to trigger the display of both current and deprecated providers. If we cannot find the provider in this expanded list, then select User-Defined from the previous list of database types.

  7. From the third drop-down list, select the implementation type that is necessary for the application. If the application does not require that connections support two-phase commit transactions, choose Connection Pool Data Source.

    If the application requires connections that support two-phase commit transactions choose XA Data Source. Applications that use this data source configuration have the benefit of container-managed transaction recovery.

    After you select an implementation type, the wizard fills the name and the description fields for the JDBC provider. We can type different values for these fields; they exist for admin purposes only.

  8. Click Next to see the Enter database class path information wizard panel.

  9. In the Class path field, type the full path location of the database JDBC driver class files.

    Your class path information becomes the value of the WebSphere environment variable that is displayed on this panel, in the form of...

    ${DATABASE_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH}.

    The appserver uses the variable to define the JDBC provider; this practice eliminates the need to specify static JDBC class paths for individual applications. Remember that if we do not provide the full, correct JDBC driver class path for the variable, the data source ultimately fails. If the field already displays a fully qualified class path, we can accept that variable definition by completing the rest of this wizard panel and clicking Next.

    Supported configurations: The appserver supports multiple versions of the selected JDBC driver for the DataDirect ConnectJDBC type 4 driver for MS SQL Server. Each version of the JDBC driver has a unique class path. Select the appropriate version of the JDBC driver so the class path is populated correctly.

  10. Use the Native library path field to specify additional class files that the JDBC driver might require to function properly on the appserver platform.

    Type the full directory path name of these class files.

  11. Click Next to see a summary of the JDBC provider settings.

  12. Click Finish if we are satisfied with the JDBC provider configuration.

    You now see the JDBC provider collection panel, which displays the new JDBC provider in a table along with other providers that are configured for the same scope.

 

What to do next

The next step is to create a data source to associate with the JDBC provider.

 

Related concepts

JDBC providers
JDBC provider collection
Data sources

 

Related tasks

Set a data source

 

Related

Data source minimum required settings, by vendor
Data source settings
Administrative console scope settings