public class DatabaseBean {

private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(DatabaseBean.class);

private Connection conn;
private PreparedStatement prepStmt;

/**
 * Zero argument constructor
 * Setup generic databse connection in here to avoid redundancy
 * The connection details are in /META-INF/context.xml
 */
public DatabaseBean() {
    try {
        InitialContext initContext = new InitialContext();
        DataSource ds = (DataSource) initContext.lookup("java:/comp/env/jdbc/mysite");
        conn = ds.getConnection();
    }
    catch (SQLException SQLEx) {
        logger.fatal("There was a problem with the database connection.");
        logger.fatal(SQLEx);
        logger.fatal(SQLEx.getCause());
    }
    catch (NamingException nameEx) {
        logger.fatal("There was a naming exception");
        logger.fatal(nameEx);
        logger.fatal(nameEx.getCause());
    }
}

/**
 * Execute a query. Do not use for statements (update delete insert etc).
 *
 * @return A ResultSet of the execute query. A set of size zero if no results were returned. It is never null.
 * @see #executeUpdate() for running update, insert delete etc.
 */

public ResultSet executeQuery() {
    ResultSet result = null;
    try {
        result = prepStmt.executeQuery();
        logger.debug(prepStmt.toString());
    }
    catch (SQLException SQLEx) {
        logger.fatal("There was an error running a query");
        logger.fatal(SQLEx);
    }
    return result;
}

public void close() {
    try {
        prepStmt.close();
        prepStmt = null;

        conn.close();
        conn = null;
    } catch (SQLException SQLEx) {
        logger.warn("There was an error closing the database connection.");
    }
}
}

public LinkedList<ImportantNoticeBean> getImportantNotices() {

    DatabaseBean noticesDBBean = new DatabaseBean();
    LinkedList<ImportantNoticeBean> listOfNotices = new LinkedList<ImportantNoticeBean>();

    try {
        PreparedStatement preStmt = noticesDBBean.getConn().prepareStatement("SELECT pseudonym, message, date_to, date_from " +
                "FROM importantnotices, users " +
                "WHERE importantnotices.username = users.username " +
                "AND NOW() >= date_from AND NOW() <= date_to;");

        noticesDBBean.setPrepStmt(preStmt);
        ResultSet result = noticesDBBean.executeQuery();

        while (result.next()) {
            ImportantNoticeBean noticeBean = new ImportantNoticeBean();

            noticeBean.setAuthor(result.getString("pseudonym"));
            noticeBean.setMessage(result.getString("message"));
            noticeBean.setDateTo(result.getDate("date_to"));
            noticeBean.setDateFrom(result.getDate("date_from"));

            listOfNotices.add(noticeBean);
        }

        result.close();

    } catch (SQLException SQLEx) {
        logger.error("There was an error in ImportantNoticesBean.getImportantNotices()");
        logger.error(SQLEx);
    } finally {
        noticesDBBean.close();
    }
    return listOfNotices;
}

<Context reloadable="true">

    <Resource name="jdbc/mysite"
              auth="Container"
              type="javax.sql.DataSource"
              username="user"
              password="password"
              driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
              url="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/mysite"
              maxActive="10"
              maxIdle="5"
              maxWait="6000"
              removeAbandoned="true"
              logAbandoned="false"
              removeAbandonedTimeout="20"
            />
</Context>

* Jakarta-Commons DBCP
* Jakarta-Commons Collections
* Jakarta-Commons Pool

testWhileIdle=true
timeBetweenEvictionRunsMillis=300000

*SNIP*
maxActive="10"
maxIdle="5"
maxWait="7000"
removeAbandoned="true"
logAbandoned="false"
removeAbandonedTimeout="3"
*SNIP*

AbandonedObjectPool is used (org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.AbandonedObjectPool@cd70f7)

defaultAutoCommit="false"
		defaultTransactionIsolation="REPEATABLE_READ"
		auth="Container"
		type="javax.sql.DataSource"
		logAbandoned="true"
    	  removeAbandoned="true"
		removeAbandonedTimeout="300"
		maxActive="-1"
		initialSize="15"
		maxIdle="10"
		maxWait="10000"
		username="youruser"
		password="youruserpassword"
		driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
		url="jdbc:mysql://yourhost/yourdatabase"/>