Database connection pooling uses your database connections in an intelligent manner to help reduce the time a servlets waits for a database connection.

For Resin users, Resin comes with an excellent built-in connection pooling system. You can find out more about it by consulting the examples that were installed with your account.

For JRun Users, The DbConnectionBroker and JDBCGlobalBroker classes, available at Java Exchange, come pre-installed with your MySQL Database service. We've provided sample code to make your job even easier. We've also provide instructions on installing the PoolMan connection broker software that can be used from both JSP documents and servlets.

Here's what database connection broker software will supply to your database-intensive servlets:

Quicker connections. Normally, when a servlet requests a connection, the database server starts a new database thread, initializes it, then hands it to the servlet. This process takes time. A good database connection pooling system gets in between the servlet and the database engine. It holds a certain number of database connections open and just hands them to servlets as they need them. This is much faster than initializing database threads.

Intelligent connection use. As long as your servlet only needs a few database connections, the connection broker keeps a small number of connections open to streamline database and system memory use. When you request more connections, it dynamically adjusts its connection pool to provide your servlets with the connectivity they need.

We highly recommend using a global pool of database connections that is available to all of your servlets. Rather than having each servlet manage its own set of database connections, all of your servlets will access the same set of database connections. Sample code is available that demonstrates how to do this.

If you need a connection broker that can share database connections with both JSP documents and servlts, take a look at our PoolMan installation instructions.