Configuring the Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver V3.0 when using WebSphere Process Server (WPS) or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus (WESB)

Resolving The Problem

Microsoft released the JDBC driver version 3.0 to fix some of the issues in the Microsoft JDBC driver version 2.0. From a configuration perspective, both versions of the driver have the same .jar file name that is added to the CLASSPATH variable.

If you download the drivers from the Microsoft website, the directory structure looks like the following:



Note that the root directory used by WebSphere Process Server or Enterprise Service Bus to determine driver location are different, although all other paths remain the same.

• Root directory for Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver version 2.0: sqljdbc_2.0/enu

• Root directory for Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver version 3.0: sqljdbc_3.0/enu

• Microsoft SQL Server JDBC 1.2: {MICROSOFT_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH}/sqljdbc.jar
• Microsoft SQL Server JDBC 2.0: {MICROSOFT_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH}/sqljdbc4.jar
• Microsoft SQL Server JDBC 3.0: {MICROSOFT_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH}/sqljdbc4.jar

Although WebSphere Process Server and Enterprise Service Bus do not have an explicit option for you to select the Microsoft SQL Server driver version 3.0, you can enter the required value manually wherever you are configuring the database.

For example, when configuring the database in the Profile Management Tool, select Microsoft SQL Server JDBC 2.0 as the JDBC driver type, then type sqljdbc_3.0/enu in the Location (directory) of JDBC driver classpath files field.

Similarly, if you are using the Database Design tool or the administrative console to work with databases, manually enter the location for the version 3.0 driver (sqljdbc_3.0/enu).

If you have an existing WebSphere Process Server or Enterprise Service Bus V6.2.0.3 or V7.0.0.3 installation that is configured to use the 2.0 version of the Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver, you can update it to use version 3.0, as follows.

• Make sure you have downloaded version 3.0 of the JDBC driver.
• Log in to the administrative console.
• Click Environment -> WebSphere Variables and identify the variable MICROSOFT_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH in all the scopes. The “MICROSOFT_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH” identifies the location of the driver.
• In each scope, update the value of this variable to the location of the new driver (sqljdbc_3.0/enu).
• Ensure that you do not have any hard-coded paths to the driver location by clicking Resources -> JDBC -> JDBC Providers and then verifying that all of the Microsoft SQL Server providers have the MICROSOFT_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH variable as the relative path for CLASSPATH.
• If you are in a Network Deployment environment, synchronize the nodes to make sure the updates are done for all the federated nodes .
• Do a test connection for all of the data sources using Microsoft SQL Server to verify that the new driver works.
• Restart the servers