jdbc and database resident connection pooling 1

[Thargy]

I am trying to ascertain whether or not there is a jdbc driver which is compatible with DRCP.

I am at the start of a project, and want to use DRCP to give the application server a pool of connections that all appear to be direct, thereby enabling the application to log in as a particular user. This will enable me to tightly control privileges, roles, permissions and auditing, as the database will have programmatic knowledge of the user.

however, the dev team lead is of the opinion that the ojdbc14.dll driver is incompatible with DRCP. Despite a reasonable stab as google and reading the on-line documentation, I am none the wiser. Since I am not a java developer I'm out of my depth here. Can anyone advise?

Regards

T

 

[karluk]

I've looked into this and your development team lead is correct. The most direct documentation that Oracle provides on this issue is note 1087381.1 (Is Database Resident Connection Pooling (DRCP) Supported With JDBC-THIN / JDBC-OCI) at support.oracle.com. This article states that jdbc thin drivers do not support pooled connections. The situation with jdbc oci driver is a little more subtle. It's possible to log in using DRCP using jdbc oci, but unfortunately these connections behave like dedicated connections, so you don't get any of the benefits of connection pooling. I've also done some testing in one of my 11.2.0.1 databases which supports these findings.

Please note that there are multiple approachs to connection pooling. Your question pertains to DRCP. But the Oracle 11.2 JDBC Developers Guide says that jdbc oci supports what it calls "OCI driver connection pooling". I gather that this is managed at the application tier, not the database tier as in DRCP. Jdbc oci maintains a few physical database connections and shares them among many logical connections. You might want to investigate this approach as an alternative to DRCP.

 

[Thargy]

Karl,

thank you so much for the assist.

Is it possible to use application server connection pooling (e.g. Apache or similar) and proxy authentication?

My main issue is that I want to have known log in identities. Right now they are asking for a table containing log in and password information (geck!) which the application will access. Needless to say, this will blow a gaping hole in security.

Do you have any suggestions as to how best to provide connection pooling with java, and still maintain security? Having the application as the sole arbiter of what's secure etc, is effectively single-mode security failure for the system.

Regards

T