data connection configuration can be placed in /etc/minerva/db.properties

persist/src/main/resources/dataSource.xml

@@ -9,7 +9,8 @@
 		http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
 		http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-4.0.xsd">
 
-	<context:property-placeholder location="classpath:db.properties" />
+	<context:property-placeholder ignore-resource-not-found="true" location="classpath:db.properties,file:/etc/minerva/db.properties" />
+
 				 
 <!-- Data Source Declaration -->
 	 <bean id="DataSource" class="com.mchange.v2.c3p0.ComboPooledDataSource" destroy-method="close">