Hi, In above mention method there is a protection against dead database and dialect is build via dialect = DialectFactory.buildDialect( props ); when exception is thrown from line Connection conn = connections.getConnection(); e.g. when database is not available. However there is no such protection when exception is thrown later from line DatabaseMetaData meta = conn.getMetaData(); which is in inner try-catch block (code does not hit any DialectFactory.buildDialect( props ); then) This can happen for certain connection pools (atomikos in my case). Subsequently, NullPointerException on line 169 is hit. I think call to DialectFactory.buildDialect( props ) also in inner catch block on line 140 would solve it nicelly. Thanks, Jan