diff --git a/integration-tests/jpa-mssql/README.md b/integration-tests/jpa-mssql/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..52e8e9e34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/integration-tests/jpa-mssql/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+# JPA example with Microsoft SQL Server
+
+## Running the tests
+
+By default, the tests of this module are disabled.
+
+To run the tests in a standard JVM with SQL Server started as a Docker container, you can run the following command:
+
+```
+mvn clean install -Ddocker -Dtest-mssql
+```
+
+To also test as a native image, add `-Dnative`:
+
+```
+mvn clean install -Ddocker -Dtest-mssql -Dnative
+```
+
+Alternatively you can connect to your own SQL Server.
+Reconfigure the connection URL with `-Dmssqldb.url=jdbc:sqlserver://...`;
+you'll probably want to change the authentication password too: `-Dmssqldb.sa-password=NotS0Secret`.
+
+## Limitations
+
+### Active Directory
+
+Authentication to the server via Active Directory is a feature of the official JDBC driver, but this was disabled in Quarkus so to minimize the dependencies.
+
+If you really need this feature, please let us know.
+
+### Localization, Encoding an Character sets
+
+SQL Server by default uses collation `SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS` ; attempting to use this in a native-image will result in an error:
+
+    java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException: "Codepage Cp1252 is not supported by the Java environment."
+
+The solution is simple: you'll need to make sure your native images contains additional, non-default character sets.
+
+Just set the flag `addAllCharsets` in the `native-image` configuration of your favourite build tool.
diff --git a/integration-tests/jpa-mssql/pom.xml b/integration-tests/jpa-mssql/pom.xml
index b485829e6..7ce2ec6c5 100644
--- a/integration-tests/jpa-mssql/pom.xml
+++ b/integration-tests/jpa-mssql/pom.xml
@@ -29,6 +29,12 @@
     <artifactId>quarkus-integration-test-jpa-mssql</artifactId>
     <name>Quarkus - Integration Tests - JPA - MSSQL</name>
     <description>Module that contains JPA related tests running in strict mode with the MSSQL database</description>
+
+    <properties>
+        <mssqldb.url>SomeJDBCUrl</mssqldb.url>
+        <mssqldb.sa-password>SomeJDBCPassword</mssqldb.sa-password>
+    </properties>
+
     <dependencies>
         <!-- Enables the JPA capabilities -->
         <dependency>
@@ -70,6 +76,18 @@
             </resource>
         </resources>
         <plugins>
+            <plugin>
+                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
+                <configuration>
+                    <skip>true</skip>
+                </configuration>
+            </plugin>
+            <plugin>
+                <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
+                <configuration>
+                    <skip>true</skip>
+                </configuration>
+            </plugin>
             <plugin>
                 <groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>
                 <artifactId>quarkus-maven-plugin</artifactId>
@@ -85,6 +103,31 @@
     </build>
 
     <profiles>
+        <profile>
+            <id>test-mssql</id>
+            <activation>
+                <property>
+                    <name>test-mssql</name>
+                </property>
+            </activation>
+            <build>
+                <plugins>
+                    <plugin>
+                        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
+                        <configuration>
+                            <skip>false</skip>
+                        </configuration>
+                    </plugin>
+                    <plugin>
+                        <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
+                        <configuration>
+                            <skip>false</skip>
+                        </configuration>
+                    </plugin>
+                </plugins>
+            </build>
+        </profile>
+
         <profile>
             <id>native-image</id>
             <activation>
@@ -141,6 +184,78 @@
             </build>
         </profile>
 
+        <profile>
+            <id>docker-mssql</id>
+            <activation>
+                <property>
+                    <name>docker</name>
+                </property>
+            </activation>
+            <properties>
+                <mssqldb.url>jdbc:sqlserver://localhost:1433;databaseName=tempdb</mssqldb.url>
+                <!-- Careful: SQL Server refuses to work with trivial passwords. -->
+                <mssqldb.sa-password>ActuallyRequired11Complexity</mssqldb.sa-password>
+            </properties>
+            <build>
+                <plugins>
+                    <plugin>
+                        <groupId>io.fabric8</groupId>
+                        <artifactId>docker-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+                        <configuration>
+                            <images>
+                                <image>
+                                    <name>microsoft/mssql-server-linux:2017-CU12</name>
+                                    <alias>quarkus-test-mssqldb</alias>
+                                    <run>
+                                        <ports>
+                                            <port>1433:1433</port>
+                                        </ports>
+                                        <env>
+                                            <ACCEPT_EULA>Y</ACCEPT_EULA>
+                                            <SA_PASSWORD>ActuallyRequired11Complexity</SA_PASSWORD>
+                                        </env>
+                                        <log>
+                                            <prefix>MS SQL Server:</prefix>
+                                            <date>default</date>
+                                            <color>cyan</color>
+                                        </log>
+                                        <wait>
+                                            <!-- good docs found at: http://dmp.fabric8.io/#build-healthcheck -->
+                                            <tcp>
+                                                <mode>direct</mode>
+                                                <ports>
+                                                    <port>1433</port>
+                                                </ports>
+                                            </tcp>
+                                            <!-- Unfortunately booting this is slow, needs to set a generous timeout: -->
+                                            <time>40000</time>
+                                        </wait>
+                                    </run>
+                                </image>
+                            </images>
+                        </configuration>
+                        <executions>
+                            <execution>
+                                <id>docker-start</id>
+                                <phase>compile</phase>
+                                <goals>
+                                    <goal>stop</goal>
+                                    <goal>start</goal>
+                                </goals>
+                            </execution>
+                            <execution>
+                                <id>docker-stop</id>
+                                <phase>post-integration-test</phase>
+                                <goals>
+                                    <goal>stop</goal>
+                                </goals>
+                            </execution>
+                        </executions>
+                    </plugin>
+                </plugins>
+            </build>
+        </profile>
+
     </profiles>
 
 </project>
diff --git a/integration-tests/jpa-mssql/src/main/resources/application.properties b/integration-tests/jpa-mssql/src/main/resources/application.properties
index 384726e0e..5f135623b 100644
--- a/integration-tests/jpa-mssql/src/main/resources/application.properties
+++ b/integration-tests/jpa-mssql/src/main/resources/application.properties
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
-quarkus.datasource.url=jdbc:sqlserver://localhost:1433;databaseName=tempdb
+quarkus.datasource.url=${mssqldb.url}
 quarkus.datasource.driver=com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
 quarkus.datasource.username=sa
-quarkus.datasource.password=ActuallyRequired11Complexity
+quarkus.datasource.password=${mssqldb.sa-password}
 quarkus.datasource.max-size=8
 quarkus.datasource.min-size=2
 quarkus.hibernate-orm.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServer2012Dialect