I've found a solution to my plight - I don't know if it'll work for you or help you try something that MAY fix it.
I use a common code set which includes the Application.cfc from a CF Mapping - So, in the application.cfc in the actual website I do this:-
<cfinclude template="/UberDirectory/Application.cfc">
Then, in the /UberDirectory/Application.cfc, I was initialising a CFC which checks if the datasource was created for the website. The datasource checking code attempts to log into the Admin API and check & create if necessary the datasource.
This has previously worked without fail for me - But in this instance it failed!! I was doing two things wrong - Firstly, the CFC should only be called in the Application.cfc in the onRequestStart section as the Application had to be initialised first - This is maybe because I've invoked the application.cfc in a "non-standard" manner.
Secondly, once I'd moved the CFC invocation into oNRequestStart I saw the following error:-
The string COOKIE.CFAUTHORIZATION_uber-directory is not a valid ColdFusion variable name.
I had this as the app name .... <cfset this.name = 'uber-directory'>
Changedthe dash to an underscore and I was away and could once again check the datasources
Hope it helps
Martin