It is always highly worrying when the solution to a problem involves the
blunderbus.

In this case:
windows 2003 server sp1 / MX7 + updates (02, 03, JDBC, Merrimack)
Specify JDBC SQL server datasource - MSDE 2000 mixed mode TCP/IP no firewall
on any machines

Error: Connection verification failed for data source...instance not running.

Irony: it works on my 'identical' beta server.

Solution: copy over the lib directory in CF.

Messyness: All Admin settings from beta are copied to new box - but it now
works.

I don't recommend this course of action but it would be nice if more extensive
file versioning was provided as well as more extensive JDBC error messages. For
that matter, I really hope MM fix the microsoft ODBC issue with stored
procedures soon....