[java] SEVERE: Unable to create initial connections of pool - tomcat 7 with context.xml file

I tried to run project on tomcat 7.0.52 and initialize to DB through context.xml file.

But it throws bunch of exceptions, I couldn't figure out what is wrong there.

Here is console output:

java.sql.SQLException: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
    at org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.PooledConnection.connectUsingDriver(PooledConnection.java:254)
    at org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.PooledConnection.connect(PooledConnection.java:182)
    at org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.ConnectionPool.createConnection(ConnectionPool.java:701)
    at org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.ConnectionPool.borrowConnection(ConnectionPool.java:635)
    at org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.ConnectionPool.init(ConnectionPool.java:486)
    at org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.ConnectionPool.<init>(ConnectionPool.java:144)
    at org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceProxy.pCreatePool(DataSourceProxy.java:116)
    at org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceProxy.createPool(DataSourceProxy.java:103)
    at org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceFactory.createDataSource(DataSourceFactory.java:554)
    at org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceFactory.getObjectInstance(DataSourceFactory.java:242)
    at org.apache.naming.factory.ResourceFactory.getObjectInstance(ResourceFactory.java:141)
    at javax.naming.spi.NamingManager.getObjectInstance(NamingManager.java:321)

Here is full stack trace.

Here is output to tomcat catalina log

snippet of web.xml:

<resource-ref>
    <description>Travel Agency Datasource</description>
    <res-ref-name>jdbc/onlinedb</res-ref-name>
    <res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
    <res-auth>Container</res-auth>
</resource-ref>

context.xml:

<Context>
    <Resource name="jdbc/onlinedb"
              type="javax.sql.DataSource"
              factory="org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceFactory"
              maxActive="20" maxIdle="10"
              maxWait="-1"
              username="root"
              password="secret"
              driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
              url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/travelagency?characterEncoding=utf8"/>
</Context>

ConnectionManager class:

public class ConnectionManager {
    private static Logger log = Logger.getLogger(ConnectionManager.class);

    public static Connection getConnection() throws SQLException {
        Connection con = null;
        try {
            Context initContext = new InitialContext();
            Context envContext = (Context) initContext.lookup("java:/comp/env");
            DataSource datasource = (DataSource) envContext.lookup("jdbc/onlinedb");
            con = datasource.getConnection();
        } catch (NamingException e) {
            log.error(e);
        }
        return con;
    }
}

mysql-connector-java-5.1.27-bin.jar is added to cp:

I tried to change content of context.xml file:

<resource-env-ref>
        <description>Travel Agency Datasource</description>
        <resource-env-ref-name>jdbc/onlinedb</resource-env-ref-name>
        <resource-env-ref-type>javax.sql.DataSource</resource-env-ref-type>
</resource-env-ref>

But it keep failing.

How to solve this trouble?

I have also dealt with this exception after a fully working context.xml setup was adjusted. I didn't want environment details in the context.xml, so I took them out and saw this error. I realized I must fully create this datasource resource in code based on System Property JVM -D args.

Original error with just user/pwd/host removed: org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.ConnectionPool init SEVERE: Unable to create initial connections of pool.

Removed entire contents of context.xml and try this: Initialize on startup of app server the datasource object sometime before using first connection. If using Spring this is good to do in an @Configuration bean in @Bean Datasource constructor.

package to use: org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.*

PoolProperties p = new PoolProperties();
p.setUrl(jdbcUrl);
            p.setDriverClassName(driverClass);
            p.setUsername(user);
            p.setPassword(pwd);
            p.setJmxEnabled(true);
            p.setTestWhileIdle(false);
            p.setTestOnBorrow(true);
            p.setValidationQuery("SELECT 1");
            p.setTestOnReturn(false);
            p.setValidationInterval(30000);
            p.setValidationQueryTimeout(100);
            p.setTimeBetweenEvictionRunsMillis(30000);
            p.setMaxActive(100);
            p.setInitialSize(5);
            p.setMaxWait(10000);
            p.setRemoveAbandonedTimeout(60);
            p.setMinEvictableIdleTimeMillis(30000);
            p.setMinIdle(5);
            p.setLogAbandoned(true);
            p.setRemoveAbandoned(true);
            p.setJdbcInterceptors(
              "org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.interceptor.ConnectionState;"+
              "org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.interceptor.StatementFinalizer");
            org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSource ds = new org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSource();
            ds.setPoolProperties(p);
            return ds;

I use sprint-boot (2.1.1), and mysql version is 8.0.13. I add dependency in pom, solve my problem.

 <dependency>
      <groupId>mysql</groupId>
      <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
      <version>8.0.13</version>
 </dependency>

MySQL Connector/J » 8.0.13 link: https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/mysql/mysql-connector-java/8.0.13
MySQL Connector/J » All the version link: https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/mysql/mysql-connector-java

When you encounter exceptions like this, the most useful information is generally at the bottom of the stacktrace:

Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
  at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:366)
  ...
  at org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.PooledConnection.connectUsingDriver(PooledConnection.java:246)

The problem is that Tomcat can't find com.mysql.jdbc.Driver. This is usually caused by the JAR containing the MySQL driver not being where Tomcat expects to find it (namely in the webapps/<yourwebapp>/WEB-INF/lib directory).