The following table summarizes data access concepts central to IBM WebSphere Application Server:
data store or database | A relational database such as DB2 or Oracle, or another product that manages and accesses data |
application database | Holds data accessed by applications managed with IBM WebSphere Application Server |
administrative database | Holds data for the IBM WebSphere Application Server administrative server |
JDBC driver | Software that enables Java applications, such as those supported by the product, to connect to JDBC-compliant databases |
JDBC driver configuration | An administrative configuration that specifies the location of the JDBC driver code for connecting Java applications to a database |
data source configuration | An administrative configuration that establishes a pool of connections
to a database, for use by Java components. It also specifies connection
pooling parameters, such as the maximum number of connections to maintain
in the pool.
A data source instance (and the associated connection pool) is created for every application server instance that uses the data source. The connection pool associated with a data source is in turn shared by all application components (servlets and JSP files) that are running in an application server. |
connection pooling | A scheme that addresses inefficiencies in obtaining and releasing database connections |