How to create JNDI context in Spring Boot with Embedded Tomcat Container

By default, JNDI is disabled in embedded Tomcat which is causing the NoInitialContextException. You need to call Tomcat.enableNaming() to enable it. The easiest way to do that is with a TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer subclass:

@Bean
public TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory tomcatFactory() {
    return new TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory() {

        @Override
        protected TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer getTomcatEmbeddedServletContainer(
                Tomcat tomcat) {
            tomcat.enableNaming();
            return super.getTomcatEmbeddedServletContainer(tomcat);
        }
    };
}

If you take this approach, you can also register the DataSource in JNDI by overriding the postProcessContext method in your TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory subclass.

context.getNamingResources().addResource adds the resource to the java:comp/env context so the resource's name should be jdbc/mydatasource not java:comp/env/mydatasource.

Tomcat uses the thread context class loader to determine which JNDI context a lookup should be performed against. You're binding the resource into the web app's JNDI context so you need to ensure that the lookup is performed when the web app's class loader is the thread context class loader. You should be able to achieve this by setting lookupOnStartup to false on the jndiObjectFactoryBean. You'll also need to set expectedType to javax.sql.DataSource:

<bean class="org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean">
    <property name="jndiName" value="java:comp/env/jdbc/mydatasource"/>
    <property name="expectedType" value="javax.sql.DataSource"/>
    <property name="lookupOnStartup" value="false"/>
</bean>

This will create a proxy for the DataSource with the actual JNDI lookup being performed on first use rather than during application context startup.

The approach described above is illustrated in this Spring Boot sample.


I recently had the requirement to use JNDI with an embedded Tomcat in Spring Boot.
Actual answers give some interesting hints to solve my task but it was not enough as probably not updated for Spring Boot 2.

Here is my contribution tested with Spring Boot 2.0.3.RELEASE.

Specifying a datasource available in the classpath at runtime

You have multiple choices :

  • using the DBCP 2 datasource (you don't want to use DBCP 1 that is outdated and less efficient).
  • using the Tomcat JDBC datasource.
  • using any other datasource : for example HikariCP.

If you don't specify anyone of them, with the default configuration the instantiation of the datasource will throw an exception :

Caused by: javax.naming.NamingException: Could not create resource factory instance
        at org.apache.naming.factory.ResourceFactory.getDefaultFactory(ResourceFactory.java:50)
        at org.apache.naming.factory.FactoryBase.getObjectInstance(FactoryBase.java:90)
        at javax.naming.spi.NamingManager.getObjectInstance(NamingManager.java:321)
        at org.apache.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:839)
        at org.apache.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:159)
        at org.apache.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:827)
        at org.apache.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:159)
        at org.apache.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:827)
        at org.apache.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:159)
        at org.apache.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:827)
        at org.apache.naming.NamingContext.lookup(NamingContext.java:173)
        at org.apache.naming.SelectorContext.lookup(SelectorContext.java:163)
        at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:417)
        at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.lambda$lookup$0(JndiTemplate.java:156)
        at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.execute(JndiTemplate.java:91)
        at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.lookup(JndiTemplate.java:156)
        at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.lookup(JndiTemplate.java:178)
        at org.springframework.jndi.JndiLocatorSupport.lookup(JndiLocatorSupport.java:96)
        at org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectLocator.lookup(JndiObjectLocator.java:114)
        at org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectTargetSource.getTarget(JndiObjectTargetSource.java:140)
        ... 39 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp2.BasicDataSourceFactory
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:381)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
        at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:331)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
        at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
        at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:264)
        at org.apache.naming.factory.ResourceFactory.getDefaultFactory(ResourceFactory.java:47)
        ... 58 common frames omitted

  • To use Apache JDBC datasource, you don't need to add any dependency but you have to change the default factory class to org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceFactory.
    You can do it in the resource declaration : resource.setProperty("factory", "org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceFactory"); I will explain below where add this line.

  • To use DBCP 2 datasource a dependency is required:

    <dependency> <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId> <artifactId>tomcat-dbcp</artifactId> <version>8.5.4</version> </dependency>

Of course, adapt the artifact version according to your Spring Boot Tomcat embedded version.

  • To use HikariCP, add the required dependency if not already present in your configuration (it may be if you rely on persistence starters of Spring Boot) such as :

    <dependency> <groupId>com.zaxxer</groupId> <artifactId>HikariCP</artifactId> <version>3.1.0</version> </dependency>

and specify the factory that goes with in the resource declaration:

resource.setProperty("factory", "com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariJNDIFactory");

Datasource configuration/declaration

You have to customize the bean that creates the TomcatServletWebServerFactory instance.
Two things to do :

  • enabling the JNDI naming which is disabled by default

  • creating and add the JNDI resource(s) in the server context

For example with PostgreSQL and a DBCP 2 datasource, do that :

@Bean
public TomcatServletWebServerFactory tomcatFactory() {
    return new TomcatServletWebServerFactory() {
        @Override
        protected TomcatWebServer getTomcatWebServer(org.apache.catalina.startup.Tomcat tomcat) {
            tomcat.enableNaming(); 
            return super.getTomcatWebServer(tomcat);
        }

        @Override 
        protected void postProcessContext(Context context) {

            // context
            ContextResource resource = new ContextResource();
            resource.setName("jdbc/myJndiResource");
            resource.setType(DataSource.class.getName());
            resource.setProperty("driverClassName", "org.postgresql.Driver");

            resource.setProperty("url", "jdbc:postgresql://hostname:port/dbname");
            resource.setProperty("username", "username");
            resource.setProperty("password", "password");
            context.getNamingResources()
                   .addResource(resource);          
        }
    };
}

Here the variants for Tomcat JDBC and HikariCP datasource.

In postProcessContext() set the factory property as explained early for Tomcat JDBC ds :

    @Override 
    protected void postProcessContext(Context context) {
        ContextResource resource = new ContextResource();       
        //...
        resource.setProperty("factory", "org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceFactory");
        //...
        context.getNamingResources()
               .addResource(resource);          
    }
};

and for HikariCP :

    @Override 
    protected void postProcessContext(Context context) {
        ContextResource resource = new ContextResource();       
        //...
        resource.setProperty("factory", "com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource");
        //...
        context.getNamingResources()
               .addResource(resource);          
    }
};

Using/Injecting the datasource

You should now be able to lookup the JNDI ressource anywhere by using a standard InitialContext instance :

InitialContext initialContext = new InitialContext();
DataSource datasource = (DataSource) initialContext.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/myJndiResource");

You can also use JndiObjectFactoryBean of Spring to lookup up the resource :

JndiObjectFactoryBean bean = new JndiObjectFactoryBean();
bean.setJndiName("java:comp/env/jdbc/myJndiResource");
bean.afterPropertiesSet();
DataSource object = (DataSource) bean.getObject();

To take advantage of the DI container you can also make the DataSource a Spring bean :

@Bean(destroyMethod = "")
public DataSource jndiDataSource() throws IllegalArgumentException, NamingException {
    JndiObjectFactoryBean bean = new JndiObjectFactoryBean();
    bean.setJndiName("java:comp/env/jdbc/myJndiResource");
    bean.afterPropertiesSet();
    return (DataSource) bean.getObject();
}

And so you can now inject the DataSource in any Spring beans such as :

@Autowired
private DataSource jndiDataSource;

Note that many examples on the internet seem to disable the lookup of the JNDI resource on startup :

bean.setJndiName("java:comp/env/jdbc/myJndiResource");
bean.setProxyInterface(DataSource.class);
bean.setLookupOnStartup(false);
bean.afterPropertiesSet(); 

But I think that it is helpless as it invokes just after afterPropertiesSet() that does the lookup !


After all i got the answer thanks to wikisona, first the beans:

@Bean
public TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory tomcatFactory() {
    return new TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory() {

        @Override
        protected TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer getTomcatEmbeddedServletContainer(
                Tomcat tomcat) {
            tomcat.enableNaming();
            return super.getTomcatEmbeddedServletContainer(tomcat);
        }

        @Override
        protected void postProcessContext(Context context) {
            ContextResource resource = new ContextResource();
            resource.setName("jdbc/myDataSource");
            resource.setType(DataSource.class.getName());
            resource.setProperty("driverClassName", "your.db.Driver");
            resource.setProperty("url", "jdbc:yourDb");

            context.getNamingResources().addResource(resource);
        }
    };
}

@Bean(destroyMethod="")
public DataSource jndiDataSource() throws IllegalArgumentException, NamingException {
    JndiObjectFactoryBean bean = new JndiObjectFactoryBean();
    bean.setJndiName("java:comp/env/jdbc/myDataSource");
    bean.setProxyInterface(DataSource.class);
    bean.setLookupOnStartup(false);
    bean.afterPropertiesSet();
    return (DataSource)bean.getObject();
}

the full code it's here: https://github.com/wilkinsona/spring-boot-sample-tomcat-jndi