// This manually deregisters JDBC driver, which prevents Tomcat 7 from complaining about memory leaks wrto this class
        Enumeration<Driver> drivers = DriverManager.getDrivers();
        while (drivers.hasMoreElements()) {
            Driver driver = drivers.nextElement();
            try {
                DriverManager.deregisterDriver(driver);
                LOG.log(Level.INFO, String.format("deregistering jdbc driver: %s", driver));
            } catch (SQLException e) {
                LOG.log(Level.SEVERE, String.format("Error deregistering driver %s", driver), e);
            }

        }

public final void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent sce) {
    // ... First close any background tasks which may be using the DB ...
    // ... Then close any DB connection pools ...

    // Now deregister JDBC drivers in this context's ClassLoader:
    // Get the webapp's ClassLoader
    ClassLoader cl = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
    // Loop through all drivers
    Enumeration<Driver> drivers = DriverManager.getDrivers();
    while (drivers.hasMoreElements()) {
        Driver driver = drivers.nextElement();
        if (driver.getClass().getClassLoader() == cl) {
            // This driver was registered by the webapp's ClassLoader, so deregister it:
            try {
                log.info("Deregistering JDBC driver {}", driver);
                DriverManager.deregisterDriver(driver);
            } catch (SQLException ex) {
                log.error("Error deregistering JDBC driver {}", driver, ex);
            }
        } else {
            // driver was not registered by the webapp's ClassLoader and may be in use elsewhere
            log.trace("Not deregistering JDBC driver {} as it does not belong to this webapp's ClassLoader", driver);
        }
    }
}

<listener>
    <listener-class>com.mysite.MySpecialListener</listener-class>
</listener>

public class MySpecialListener implements ServletContextListener {

    @Override
    public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent sce) {
        // On Application Startup, please…

        // Usually I'll make a singleton in here, set up my pool, etc.
    }

    @Override
    public void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent sce) {
        // On Application Shutdown, please…

        // 1. Go fetch that DataSource
        Context initContext = new InitialContext();
        Context envContext  = (Context)initContext.lookup("java:/comp/env");
        DataSource datasource = (DataSource)envContext.lookup("jdbc/database");

        // 2. Deregister Driver
        try {
            java.sql.Driver mySqlDriver = DriverManager.getDriver("jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/");
            DriverManager.deregisterDriver(mySqlDriver);
        } catch (SQLException ex) {
            logger.info("Could not deregister driver:".concat(ex.getMessage()));
        }

        // 3. For added safety, remove the reference to dataSource for GC to enjoy.
        dataSource = null;
    }

}

<dependency>
  <groupId>mysql</groupId>
  <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
  <version>5.1.18</version>
  <!-- put a copy in /usr/share/tomcat7/lib -->
  <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

/**
 * Destroys the servlet cleanly by unloading JDBC drivers.
 *
 * @see javax.servlet.GenericServlet#destroy()
 */
public void destroy() {
    String prefix = getClass().getSimpleName() +" destroy() ";
    ServletContext ctx = getServletContext();
    try {
        Enumeration<Driver> drivers = DriverManager.getDrivers();
        while(drivers.hasMoreElements()) {
            DriverManager.deregisterDriver(drivers.nextElement());
        }
    } catch(Exception e) {
        ctx.log(prefix + "Exception caught while deregistering JDBC drivers", e);
    }
    ctx.log(prefix + "complete");
}

dataSource {
    pooled = true
    jmxExport = true
    driverClassName = "org.h2.Driver"   // make this one comment
    username = "sa"
    password = ""
}