#
#  Tomcat/conf/server.xml
#
<server>
....
<GlobalNamingResources>
  <Resource name="jdbc/globalRundeckDS" auth="Container"
          type="javax.sql.DataSource"
          maxActive="100" maxIdle="30"
          maxWait="10000" username="rundeck"
          password="??????????" driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
          url="jdbc:mysql://????????.tld/rundeck?autoReconnect=true"/>
</GlobalNamingResources>
...
</server>

#
#  rundeck.war/META-INF/context.xml full file
#
<Context
  docBase="/opt/rundeck/rundeck-war"
  path="/rundeck"
  reloadable="true" >
  <ResourceLink global="jdbc/globalRundeckDS" name="jdbc/rundeckDS" type="javax.sql.DataSource" />
</Context>

#
#  Tomcat/conf/Catalina/localhost/rundeck.xml !!!! this file get generated by tomcat if you do hot deployment !!! => drop rundeck.war archive into tomcat's webapps is hotdeploymemnt in my case not since i do cold deployment i dont need the contex.xml but instead i need this file
#
#  Tomcat/conf/Catalina/localhost/rundeck.xml
<Context
  docBase="/opt/rundeck/rundeck-war"
  path="/rundeck"
  reloadable="true" >
  <ResourceLink global="jdbc/globalRundeckDS" name="jdbc/rundeckDS" type="javax.sql.DataSource" />
</Context>

#
# rundeck-base/etc/rundeck-config.properties
#
...
dataSource.jndiName = "java:comp/env/jdbc/rundeckDS"
#######rundeck.v14.rdbsupport=true make sure to remove this line or uncomment it
dataSource.dbCreate = update
...

problems still blame me on twitter: @atlasloewenherz