IBM Business Process Manager 8.5 - The (long) story of the missing WebSphere Variables and why my JDBC datasources don't fully work

So, on a newly minted IBM BPM Advanced 8.5.0.1 installation, I noticed that some of the JDBC datasources that are created when I generate the Deployment Environment using the BPMConfig command: -

fail to connect, via the Test Connection button within the WAS Integrated Solutions Console (ISC).

This is what I see: -

specifically: -

and: -

Looking in the Deployment Manager's SystemOut.log ( in /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/Dmgr01/logs/dmgr ), I see: -

Interestingly, it's only the two cell-scoped data sources that have the issue: -

I have a number of instances of the JDBC Provider: -

only one of which is scoped at the cell level: -

which has two references to the variable DB2_JCC_DRIVER_PATH: -

I only have two instances of this WebSphere Variable: -

neither of which are scoped at the cell level.

I quickly resolved this: -

Sadly this moved me forward, but didn't fully fix the problem.

This is what I now see: -

with: -

in SystemOut.log.

Again, this is a problem with a missing WebSphere Variable - WAS_INSTALL_ROOT - which isn't available 

Again, this is easily fixed: -

Am I out of the woods yet ?

Nope: -

and: -

in SystemOut.log.

Yet again: -

Again, I have a script for that: -

with: -

etc.

This is getting boring now.

Interestingly, the PUREQUERY_PATH variable does exist at the node level, but has no value: -

And ....

So, the long story short .... the two cell-scoped JDBC datasources - BPM CellScopedDB data source and BPM ESBMediationDB data source - are created with regard to variables: -

${DB2_JCC_DRIVER_PATH}/db2jcc4.jar
${UNIVERSAL_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH}/db2jcc_license_cu.jar
${DB2_JCC_DRIVER_PATH}/db2jcc_license_cisuz.jar
${PUREQUERY_PATH}/pdq.jar
${PUREQUERY_PATH}/pdqmgmt.jar

none of which exist at the cell-scoped level :-)

Next time around, this is how I'll fix the problem in one fell swoop: -

next time around.