0.14: What is data access? (brief description)

Applications running on the application server might need to store data in a database. In such a case, data access settings are required, including JDBC providers and data source configurations.

In addition, for Advanced Edition (non-Single Server), the WebSphere administrative server stores the administrative configuration in a database that you configure during product installation. The product Samples Gallery also relies on a database. You might decide to keep your application data in the same database as the one being used by the product.

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 (Applies to Advanced Edition, but not to Advanced Single Server Edition)
JDBC provider or JDBC resource provider
Software that enables Java applications, such as those supported by the product, to connect to JDBC-compliant databases through the use of DataSource objects
JDBC provider configuration or JDBC resource provider configuration
An administrative configuration that specifies the location of the JDBC Data Source 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 that are running in an application server.

connection pooling
A scheme that addresses inefficiencies in obtaining and releasing database connections