IBM BPM/WebSphere how to connect to SQL Server Database

Question

My IBM BPM(v8.5.5.0) Standard edition and WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5.2 is almost impossible to connect to an SQL database on Windows server2012-R2 Datacenter and Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise(MSSQL13. version 13.0.1742.0). I have been following this article on how to connect( https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/creating-data-source-sql-server-using-websphere-embedded-connect-jdbc-driver-websphere-application-server-v6 ). Now my problem is adding the environment variables.

Answer 1

The instructions that you posted are for WebSphere Application Server 6, which includes the "WebSphere embedded Connect JDBC Driver". This JDBC driver, however, was discontinued in later versions of the application server. This may be why you are having difficulty with the instructions on WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5.2.

You will need to vary from the instructions to use a different JDBC driver. Here is some documentation on other JDBC drivers that version 8.5.5 has built-in integration with (although does not ship them), https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEQTP_8.5.5/com.ibm.websphere.base.iseries.doc/ae/rdat_minreqmssql.html

A similar JDBC driver called the "DataDirect Connect for JDBC driver" is provided by Progress Software/DataDirect Technologies. The Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver is freely downloadable from Microsoft. Other spec compliant JDBC drivers should work with WebSphere Application Server as well, but will require additional configuration because there isn't built-in knowledge of them.

In all of these cases, you need to configure the location of the JDBC driver libraries, which you can hard code or use environment variables in. Using the ${WAS_LIBS_DIR} environment variable as shown in the v6.1 doc will not be appropriate given that the application server does not ship any of these drivers and so you will not find them within the product image.