Cannot load JDBC driver class error during Jmeter test

[drc-pnambiar]

i have mssql-jdbc-7.0.0.jre8.jar copied into master and slave containers, which have openjdk:8-jdk-slim as base image.
When I run the jmeter script on master and slaves locally, they run fine. But when I try to remote start the test from master on the Slaves, they error with message : " Response message: java.sql.SQLException: Cannot load JDBC driver class 'com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver' "

Do i need to add the jar to CLASSPATH on master and slaves? what am i missing?