Memory leak (large) when using EclipseLink with mssql-jdbc drivers

[stefan-esq]

Describe the bug
Using Eclipselink with recent versions of the mssql-jdbc driver is resulting in a memory leak.
This appears to be due to the fact that recent versions of the mssql-jdbc driver has had a reconnect listener added. The reconnect listener is added to the SQLServerConnection when a PreparedStatement is created and removed from the SQLServerConnection when the PreparedStatement is closed.
It appears however, that EclipseLink is not closing the PreparedStatement, resulting in a memory leak.
After upgrading to Java 17 and running a stress test, we found SQLServerConnections leaking GBs of heap due to having a lot of reconnect listeners.

It appears this is happening after a change in the mssql-jdbc driver, see microsoft/mssql-jdbc#2364.

To Reproduce
It appears the problem occurs when using EntityManager.persist(entity) and the transaction is commited.
Used versions:

• EclipseLink 4.0.5
• mssql-jdbc 12.10.0.jre11

Steps/resources to reproduce the behavior:
Please see the attached zip file, containing a sampple project and instructions to reproduce.
demo.zip

Expected behavior
Memory usage should stagnate, not keep increasing until the application runs out of memory.

Additional context