Database support (2.8)

The Sakai CLE supports the following production-grade databases:

Database	Driver	Notes
MySQL 5.1.x	MySQL Connector/J 5.1.13+	Sakai requires transaction support. In the case of MySQL you must implement the `InnoDB` storage engine to ensure proper transaction handling.
MySQL 5.0.x	MySQL Connector/J 5.0.4+	Sakai requires transaction support. In the case of MySQL you must implement the `InnoDB` storage engine to ensure proper transaction handling.
Oracle 11g	OJDBC	2.8 was not tested using Oracle 11g; however, both Virgina Tech and the University of Florida are using Oracle 11g with their Sakai deployments. Oracle recommends using the latest 11g driver if you are using Java 6 with either 10g or 11g; with Java 6 in combination with the 11g driver, it's recommended that you use kernel-1.2.1+ (2.8), kernel-1.1.11+ (2.7) or kernel-1.0.x (r87324+) in order to include the fix for KNL-637.
Oracle 10g / 9i	OJDBC	Both Oracle 10g AND 9i users must use the 10g driver; the latest 10g "Release 2" (10.2.x) or higher is recommended. Oracle recommends using the latest 11g driver if you are using Java 6 with either 10g or 11g; with Java 6 in combination with the 11g driver, it's recommended that you use kernel-1.2.1+ (2.8), kernel-1.1.11+ (2.7) or kernel-1.0.x (r87324+) in order to include the fix for KNL-637.
DB2		Deprecated

Choose the appropriate MySQL or Oracle JDBC driver (or connector) for your installation. For MySQL, download the *zip/*tar.gz archive, extract its contents and copy the mysql-connector-java-<version>-bin.jar to $CATALINA_HOME/common/lib. For Oracle download the ojdbc14.jar file and copy it to $CATALINA_HOME/common/lib.

You will not need to create Sakai database objects (tables, indices, etc) when setting up your database. Sakai generates its own database schema automatically during the Tomcat setup process via the autoDDL setting in sakai.properties.

In actuality, Sakai is not limited to these database choices and integration with other RDBMS systems is not difficult. In the past at least one installation used Microsoft SQL Server while requests for PostgreSQL integration are occasionally raised on the Sakai developers list. However, to date no one in the Sakai Community has stepped forward to support alternatives to either Oracle or MySQL, a prerequisite for adding additional database options to the release.