Hey guys, I will try to provide as many details as possible to to you hoping that the issue can be resolved sometimes soon.

Setup:

1. JBoss EAP 6.4 running on one virtual machine
2. Microsoft SQL server developer edition 2014 running on a different virtual machine.
   1. TCP/IP is enabled thru Sql Server Configuration Manager
   2. I have added an database called example owned by User prototype with password goforit and authentication mode is set to SQL Server Authentication

1. We originally use built-in H2 database for testing and now would like to test it with ms SQL server which is closer to our final setup.

persistence.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<persistence xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence"

        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

        xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence

          http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_2_0.xsd"

        version="2.0">

  <persistence-unit name="obps" transaction-type="JTA">

      <description>Forge Persistence Unit</description>

      <provider>org.hibernate.ejb.HibernatePersistence</provider>

      <jta-data-source>java:jboss/datasources/ExampleDSExternal</jta-data-source>

      <class>com.obps.cpm.impl.beams.BeamConfig</class>

      <class>com.obps.cpm.impl.beams.BeamInfo</class>

      <class>com.obps.cpm.impl.beams.BeamInfoKey</class>

      <class>com.obps.cpm.impl.beams.BeamVertex</class>

      <class>com.obps.cpm.impl.beams.BeamVertexKey</class>

      <class>com.obps.cpm.impl.beams.ElementWeight</class>

      <class>com.obps.cpm.impl.beams.ElementWeightKey</class>

      <class>com.obps.cpm.impl.beams.InterbeamGain</class>

      <class>com.obps.cpm.impl.beams.InterbeamGainKey</class>

      <class>com.obps.cpm.impl.ephem.EphemRecord</class>

      <class>com.obps.cpm.impl.ephem.EphemReport</class>

      <!--  <exclude-unlisted-classes>false</exclude-unlisted-classes>-->

      <properties>

          <!-- Use option "update" so that data from previous runs remains in database /-->

          <property name="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto" value="update"/>

          <!--property name="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto" value="create"/-->

          <property name="hibernate.dialect" value="org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServer2012Dialect"/>

          <property name="hibernate.show_sql" value="true"/>

          <!--  property name="javax.persistence.schema-generation.database.action" value="drop-and-create"/>-->

      </properties>

  </persistence-unit>

</persistence>

data source file not working (MS SQL)

mssql-ds.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<datasources>

     <datasource

          jndi-name="java:jboss/datasources/ExampleDSExternal"

          enabled="true"

          use-java-context="true" pool-name="ExampleDSExternal">

          <connection-url>jdbc:sqlserver://10.10.10.25:1443;DatabaseName=Example</connection-url>

          <driver-class>com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver</driver-class>

          <security>

               <user-name>prototype</user-name>

               <password>goforit</password>

     </security>

     </datasource>

</datasources>

The below data source file is for H2 database configuration and everything works.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<datasources xmlns="http://www.ironjacamar.org/schema/datasources_1_0.xsd">

    <datasource

        jndi-name="java:jboss/datasources/ExampleDSExternal"

        enabled="true"

        use-java-context="true" pool-name="ExampleDSExternal">

        <connection-url>jdbc:h2:tcp://10.10.10.22/~/test</connection-url>

        <driver>h2</driver>

        <security>

            <user-name>sa</user-name>

            <password>sa</password>

        </security>

    </datasource>

    <drivers>

    <driver name='h2' module="com.h2database.h2">

    <xa-datasource-class>org.h2.jdbcx.JdbcDataSource</xa-datasource-class>

    </driver>

    </drivers>

</datasources>

The error output when trying to deploy the application on the server

"{\"JBAS014771: Services with missing/unavailable dependencies\" => [\"jboss.persistenceunit.\\\"OBPS_CPM.war#obps\\\" is missing [jboss.naming.context.java.jboss.datasources.ExampleDSExternal]\"]}"

I am suspecting that either the data source xml file configuration is not correct, or the access to the developer edition of SQL server is not set up properly because I do not know the ins and outs of it. So my question is, is there any issue with my data source file or the persistence.xml file? or do you think I have not set up the SQL server properly to be connected externally? For example, should I choose windows authentication or the SQL server authentication and how does it affect my data source configuration?

I also learnt recently that you can configure the connection to the database thru standalone.xml file. What are the pros/cons of doing it as opposed to the approach I am using right now??

Sorry to bombard you with questions and hopefully I can resolve the issue soon. Thank you!