Use the Microsoft Native SQL Server Driver

Applies To: Rhythmyx 7.3.2 patch level 2018_7321230 or greater.

JDBC drivers are software libraries that provide standardized support for connecting an application to a backend database system.  

The Percussion installer ships with the open source JTDS jdbc driver for use by customers that are using Microsoft SQL Server as their repository database.  The JTDS driver is well tested and and works well with the product.  

There are some new features of Microsoft SQL Server and the Microsoft Azure SQL Server offerings that the open source JTDS JDBC driver does not currently support.  In these cases a customer may want to switch to using the native Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver. 

Jetty Profile

The Jetty server profile is recommend for all customers as the profile gets security updates and patches.

Percussion Datasource

The datasource properties for Percussion running under Jetty are stored in the <InstallDir>/jetty/base/etc/perc-ds.xml file. To switch to the Microsoft JDBC driver update the following properties:

perc.ds.1.driver.class=com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
perc.ds.1.driver.name=sqlserver

After applying this change, restart the Percussion service and the system will use the new driver.

JBOSS Profile

We recommend customers use the Jetty server profile.  The JBOSS profile is not getting security patches or updates. 

When running under the deprecated JBOSS application server profile, the datasource is configured by editing the <InstallDir>/AppServer/server/rx/deploy/rx-ds.xml file. To enable the Microsoft native driver, edit this file and update the following elements:

<connection-url>jdbc:sqlserver://servername</connection-url>
<driver-class>com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver</driver-class>

Restarting the service should switch to the new driver.  

For more information on driver options please see the Microsoft documentation.