You should only put the datasource in server.xml if you intend to make it available to multiple webapps as a common definition. Otherwise, set up a context xml file in CATALINA_HOME/conf/Catalina/localhost for the specific webapp that uses it. Alternatively, you can create a META-INF/context.xml file and store it in your WAR.
Here's one I have embedded in an application Context:
I have a web.xml entry to go with it - and that may be what you're missing.
I then use the JDNI key
java:/comp/env/jdbc/myDS to locate it.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.