New to WebSphere and need help

[Chris Staten]

Hey all, I�m trying to connect my new installation of WebSphere 5 to an Oracle database. I�m getting an exception thrown, javax.Management.RuntimeMBeanException (it�s a NullPointerException), and I�m not quite sure how to fix it. The problem is that I�m not the server admin, and I don�t know my way around WebSphere, but because it�s a JDBC issue I�ve been asked to help.

The exception is being thrown when we try to test the DataSource connection. This doesn�t seem like it would be a tough situation for anyone who is used to the WebSphere environment, I just don�t know what to change in the DataSource configuration. Here is a copy of the error:

DSRA8040I: Failed to connect to the DataSource. Encountered :
java.lang.NullPointerException at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver.connect(OracleDriver.java:356) at
java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:538) at
java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:157) at
oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource.getConnection(OracleDataSource.java:169)
at
oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleConnectionPoolDataSource.getPhysicalConnection(OracleConnectionPoolDataSource.java:149) at
oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleConnectionPoolDataSource.getPooledConnection(OracleConnectionPoolDataSource.java:95) at
com.ibm.ws.rsadapter.DSConfigurationHelper$1.run(DSConfigurationHelper.java:688)
at
com.ibm.ws.security.util.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java(Compiled
Code)) at
com.ibm.ws.rsadapter.DSConfigurationHelper.getPooledConnection(DSConfigurationHelper.java:683) at
com.ibm.ws.rsadapter.DSConfigurationHelper.testConnectionForGUI(DSConfigurationHelper.java:1734)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor191.invoke(Unknown Source) at s --
<truncated> --.

Any help would be appreciated. I�m not even sure where to go look up support on this info, other than googling (and that hasn�t been much help so far). Thanks!

[Chris Staten]

Well, I�ve walked through the section of the WebSphere App Server Redbook that involves creating a JDBC provider and I�m still having problems. I�ve connected manually to the Oracle database with the user and password that I have set in my data source config and it works. I�ve even run the same SELECT USER FROM DUAL query that WebSphere uses to test the connection and it worked fine. I�m still convinced that the problem is in how I have my JDBC data source set up, but I can�t figure out where.

One thing that might help me is if I could see the class spec for the following oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver.connect. Can anyone tell me how to find this spec? I looked on Oracle�s site, but I didn�t have any luck.

Again, I�m in the dark here so if you read this and have ANY insight at all please don�t hesitate to post. Also, if I ever get this figured out and understand how it was fixed I�ll post it incase there are any other poor suckers that get stuck in my situation.

[Chris Staten]

OK, I a little bit farther than I was in my last post. I did this by switching to the Oracle thin client. Of course I�m not yet finished; I couldn�t be, for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that it�s Friday afternoon and I want to go home.

My new error is an IncompatibleClassChangeError (java.lang.IncompatibleClassChangeError). It�s giving me a message that �class oracle.net.ns.NSProtocol does not implement interface oracle.net.ns.Communication at � (stack trace follows).


The User action message is �Review the DataSource configuration to fix the error that is occurring�. Well, I hate to get in an argument with a piece of software, but that�s what I�ve been doing all day and I still don�t know what the problem is!

[Chris Staten]

Got it fixed, Wooohooo!

There were two different things wrong with my connection.

I should have been using the thin client as stated above.

In the JDBC provider general properties I was using the wrong Classpath string. I was using $(ORACLE_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH)/Ojdbc14.jar when I should have been using oracle\ora92\jdbc\lib\classes12.zip