diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index fdbb180..eee3214 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -241,6 +241,26 @@ $ docker run -d --name jira \
 
 >  Start the Jira and link it to the mysql instance.
 
+## SQL Server
+
+Starting with version 7.8.0 of JIRA, Atlassian no longer provides/uses the jTDS JDBC driver and instead bundles the Microsoft JDBC driver.  This proves to be a bit of a headache because while the jTDS driver used the
+conventional JDBC URL scheme, Microsoft's driver uses a non-standard JDBC URL scheme that departs wildly from the usual (see [Issue #72](https://github.com/blacklabelops/jira/issues/72) for details).  As a result of 
+this deviation from the standard, users wishing to connect to a SQL Server database *MUST* encode their host/port/database information in the `JIRA_DATABASE_URL` and cannot leverage the individual 
+`JIRA_DB_*` variables.  Note that any additional driver properties needed can be appended in much the same was as `databaseName` is handled in the example below.
+
+~~~~
+docker run \
+    -d \
+    --name jira \
+    --network jiranet \
+    -v jiravolume:/var/atlassian/jira \
+    -e "JIRA_DATABASE_URL=sqlserver://MySQLServerHost:1433;databaseName=MyDatabase" \
+    -e "JIRA_DB_USER=jira-app" \
+    -e "JIRA_DB_PASSWORD=***" \
+    -p 8080:8080 \
+    blacklabelops/jira
+~~~~
+
 # Database Wait Feature
 
 A Jira container can wait for the database container to start up. You have to specify the
diff --git a/imagescripts/common.sh b/imagescripts/common.sh
index ccdf64e..ce20581 100755
--- a/imagescripts/common.sh
+++ b/imagescripts/common.sh
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ extract_database_url() {
       local jdbc_url="jdbc:postgresql://$host_port_name"
       local hibernate_dialect="org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQLDialect"
       local database_type="postgres72"
+      local validation_query="select version();"
       ;;
     mysql|mysql2)
       if [ -z "$(read_var $prefix PORT)" ]; then
@@ -76,16 +77,14 @@ extract_database_url() {
       local jdbc_url="jdbc:mysql://$host_port_name?autoReconnect=true&characterEncoding=utf8&useUnicode=true&sessionVariables=default_storage_engine%3DInnoDB"
       local hibernate_dialect="org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect"
       local database_type="mysql"
+      local validation_query="select 1"
       ;;
     sqlserver)
-      if [ -z "$(read_var $prefix PORT)" ]; then
-        eval "${prefix}_PORT=1433"
-      fi
-      local host_port_name="$(read_var $prefix HOST):$(read_var $prefix PORT)/$(read_var $prefix NAME)"
-      local jdbc_driver="net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver"
-      local jdbc_url="jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://$host_port_name"
+      local jdbc_driver="com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver"
+      local jdbc_url="jdbc:$url"
       local hibernate_dialect="org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServerDialect"
       local database_type="mssql"
+      local validation_query="select 1"
       ;;
     *)
       echo "Unsupported database url scheme: $(read_var $prefix SCHEME)"
@@ -97,4 +96,6 @@ extract_database_url() {
   eval "${prefix}_JDBC_URL=\"$jdbc_url\""
   eval "${prefix}_DIALECT=\"$hibernate_dialect\""
   eval "${prefix}_TYPE=\"$database_type\""
+  eval "${prefix}_VALIDATION_QUERY=\"$validation_query\""
+
 }
diff --git a/imagescripts/launch.sh b/imagescripts/launch.sh
index 3a2c3ab..a019509 100755
--- a/imagescripts/launch.sh
+++ b/imagescripts/launch.sh
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ if [ -n "$JIRA_DATABASE_URL" ]; then
     <pool-max-idle>20</pool-max-idle>
     <pool-remove-abandoned>true</pool-remove-abandoned>
     <pool-remove-abandoned-timeout>300</pool-remove-abandoned-timeout>
-    <validation-query>select version();</validation-query>
+    <validation-query>$JIRA_DB_VALIDATION_QUERY</validation-query>
     <validation-query-timeout>3</validation-query-timeout>
     <min-evictable-idle-time-millis>60000</min-evictable-idle-time-millis>
     <time-between-eviction-runs-millis>300000</time-between-eviction-runs-millis>