Websphere 7.0 tutorial to configure DataDirect SQL Server JDBC Driver

Websphere users are accustomed to using embedded Websphere JDBC drivers from DataDirect, however they are no longer available in version 7.0.0.0.  Not a problem!  You can get the latest and greatest JDBC drivers directly from Progress DataDirect that IBM continues to recommend in their data source configurations.

This tutorial will help you configure the SQL Server JDBC Driver in WAS 7.0 so that you can resume providing superior connectivity for your applications.  If you are upgrading from 6.1 to 7.0, you should check out the WebSphereConnectJDBCDriverConversion command to migrate the existing data sources from the embedded WebSphere Connect JDBC driver to the Progress DataDirect Connect JDBC driver in the Websphere Application Server V7 Migration Guide.

The preliminary steps are: 1. Install IBM WebSphere Application Server 7.0.0.0

2 . Install Progress DataDirect Connect for JDBC using the instructions in the Progress DataDirect Connect for JDBC Installation Guide.  You can download a free, 15-day trial of the IBM-certified Progress DataDirect drivers (including DB2, Oracle, Sybase, MySQL and Salesforce) from http://www.datadirect.com/products/jdbc/index.html

3. Next, launch the Integration Solutions Console:

Under Guided Activities, select “Connecting to a database”

Configure new credentials for secure database access

Configure a new JDBC Provider, and select Database Type as "SQL Server" and Provider Type as “DataDirect ConnectJDBC type 4 driver for MS SQL Server”.

Note: If you have installed the Connect for JDBC 4.2 drivers, you will be using type 5 drivers despite the provider type string.

Click next and enter the Class Path:

Click Next and Finish.

You can skip the section to configure Websphere variables since DataDirect Connect drivers are pure java.

Configure a data source

Click on the JDBC provider created above and then Click “Data Sources” to create a New data source.

Enter JNDI name and click Next.  Then enter database specific properties for the data source:

Select the Component-managed authentication alias configured above.

Click Finish and then save and synchronize the changes; and restart the servers.

Click on the data source “Test connection” button.

If you need to configure the providers for performance after using the performance wizard, click on the “Custom properties” to view and configure additional connection properties.

The samples installed with WAS work against the embedded Derby database; and I tested by changing the data sources and creating similar tables in the new data source.  It would be great to hear if anyone knows of an out-of-box query sample that can be easily used against any data souce.