TechNote (Archived)

Configuring a JDBC Driver for MySQL 4.1 or 5 for use with ColdFusion MX

Issue

When using the MySQL Driver provided in the list of driver options in the ColdFusion MX Administrator to connect to a MySQL 4.1 or MySQL 5database, the following error may occur:

 Connection verification failed for data source: mysql_bad java.sql.SQLException: Communication failure during handshake. Is there a server running on localhost:3306? The root cause was that: java.sql.SQLException: Communication failure during handshake. Is there a server running on localhost:3306?

Reason

As of MySQL 4.1, the MySQL database authentication mechanism changed since earlier versions, and older MySQL JDBC drivers will not work unless either MySQL is configured to use the former authentication mechanism or a current version of the driver is used instead.

Solution

To connect to a MySQL 4.1 or 5 database from ColdFusion MX:

Download a current, stable version of the MySQL Connector J JDBC driver, available at: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/

Note: Connector/J version 3.1.11 and higher cannot be used with ColdFusion MX 7 because of MySQL bug 13469. Connector/J 3.1.10 should be used instead for ColdFusion MX 7 until this MySQL bug is fixed. All Connector/J version 3.0 releases and all version 3.2 releases work with ColdFusion MX 7.
Extract the mysql-connector-java-3.{n}-bin.jar file from the downloaded archive file.
Save the mysql-connector-java-3.{n}-bin.jar file in thecf_root/WEB-INF/lib directory.
Restart the ColdFusion MX server.
Add a new data source to the ColdFusion MX Administrator, using the driver option Other.
Enter the JDBC URL:
jdbc:mysql://[host]:[port]/[database]
Enter the Driver Class:
com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
Complete username/password, and adjust other data source settings, if needed.
Submit the data source for verification.