diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 2817123e84..4e841117e9 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -25,3 +25,7 @@ bitronix-default-config.properties
 
 # modules that don't exist in this branch
 /jbpm-human-task-war/
+
+# files used for external db testing
+jdbc_driver.jar
+db-settings.xml
diff --git a/jbpm-services/executor-services/pom.xml b/jbpm-services/executor-services/pom.xml
index 48d8668f42..d4c69dfdef 100644
--- a/jbpm-services/executor-services/pom.xml
+++ b/jbpm-services/executor-services/pom.xml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
-<project xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"
-         xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
-         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
+<project
+  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"
+  xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>org.jbpm</groupId>
@@ -71,4 +71,18 @@
       <type>jar</type>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
+
+  <build>
+    <testResources>
+      <testResource>
+        <directory>src/test/resources</directory>
+        <filtering>false</filtering>
+      </testResource>
+      <testResource>
+        <directory>src/test/filtered-resources</directory>
+        <filtering>true</filtering>
+      </testResource>
+    </testResources>
+  </build>
+  
 </project>
diff --git a/jbpm-services/executor-services/src/test/filtered-resources/META-INF/persistence.xml b/jbpm-services/executor-services/src/test/filtered-resources/META-INF/persistence.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..226c88d7fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jbpm-services/executor-services/src/test/filtered-resources/META-INF/persistence.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<persistence version="2.0"
+             xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence" 
+             xmlns:orm="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/orm"
+  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+  xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_2_0.xsd 
+                      http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/orm http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/orm_2_0.xsd">
+
+  <persistence-unit name="org.jbpm.executor" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">
+    <provider>org.hibernate.ejb.HibernatePersistence</provider>
+    <mapping-file>META-INF/Executor-orm.xml</mapping-file>
+    <class>org.jbpm.executor.entities.ErrorInfo</class>
+    <class>org.jbpm.executor.entities.RequestInfo</class>
+    <exclude-unlisted-classes>true</exclude-unlisted-classes>
+ 
+    <properties>
+      <property name="hibernate.dialect" value="${maven.hibernate.dialect}" />
+      <property name="hibernate.connection.autocommit" value="false" />
+
+      <property name="hibernate.max_fetch_depth" value="3" />
+      <property name="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto" value="create-drop" />
+      <property name="hibernate.show_sql" value="false" />
+
+      <property name="hibernate.connection.driver_class" value="${maven.jdbc.driver.class}" />
+      <property name="hibernate.connection.url" value="${maven.jdbc.url}" />
+      <property name="hibernate.connection.username" value="${maven.jdbc.username}" />
+      <property name="hibernate.connection.password" value="${maven.jdbc.password}" />
+
+      <!-- BZ 841786: AS7/EAP 6/Hib 4 uses new (sequence) generators which seem to cause problems -->      
+      <property name="hibernate.id.new_generator_mappings" value="false" />            
+
+      <!-- needed for JTA testing 
+      <property name="hibernate.transaction.jta.platform" value="org.hibernate.service.jta.platform.internal.BitronixJtaPlatform" />
+        -->
+    </properties>
+  </persistence-unit>
+
+ 
+  
+</persistence>
diff --git a/jbpm-services/executor-services/src/test/filtered-resources/datasource.properties b/jbpm-services/executor-services/src/test/filtered-resources/datasource.properties
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3e3e23c9f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jbpm-services/executor-services/src/test/filtered-resources/datasource.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+maxPoolSize=${maven.btm.maxPoolSize}
+allowLocalTransactions=true
+# JDBC/Database properties that are set in the maven pom
+#
+#   the below variable names (i.e. "${maven.datasource.classname}) are
+# automagically replaced with their values (defined in the pom.xml)
+# because of the fact that <filtering> is set to true in for the
+# src/test/resources directory in the pom.
+#
+className=${maven.datasource.classname}
+driverClassName=${maven.jdbc.driver.class}
+user=${maven.jdbc.username}
+password=${maven.jdbc.password}
+url=${maven.jdbc.url}
+serverName=${maven.jdbc.db.server}
+portNumber=${maven.jdbc.db.port}
+databaseName=${maven.jdbc.db.name}
+makeBaseDb=false
+testMarshalling=false
+txType=${maven.tx.type}
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 079207e5a1..78a4d36231 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -144,31 +144,31 @@
       </modules>
     </profile>
 
-  <profile>
-    <id>database</id>
-    <build>
-      <plugins>
-        <plugin>
-          <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
-          <configuration>
-            <additionalClasspathElements>
-              <additionalClasspathElement>${maven.jdbc.driver.jar}</additionalClasspathElement>
-            </additionalClasspathElements>
-            <useSystemClassLoader>true</useSystemClassLoader>
-            <includes>
-              <include>**/*Test.java</include>
-            </includes>
-            <excludes>
-              <exclude>**/*AbstractTest.java</exclude>
-              <exclude>**/*JMS*Test.java</exclude>
-            </excludes>
-            <argLine>-Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m</argLine>
-          </configuration>
-        </plugin>
-      </plugins>
-    </build>
-  </profile>
-    
+    <profile>
+      <id>database</id>
+      <build>
+        <plugins>
+          <plugin>
+            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
+            <configuration>
+              <additionalClasspathElements>
+                <additionalClasspathElement>${maven.jdbc.driver.jar}</additionalClasspathElement>
+              </additionalClasspathElements>
+              <useSystemClassLoader>true</useSystemClassLoader>
+              <includes>
+                <include>**/*Test.java</include>
+              </includes>
+              <excludes>
+                <exclude>**/*AbstractTest.java</exclude>
+                <exclude>**/*JMS*Test.java</exclude>
+              </excludes>
+              <argLine>-Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m</argLine>
+            </configuration>
+          </plugin>
+        </plugins>
+      </build>
+    </profile>
+
   </profiles>
     
 </project>