found reply myself. ejb 2.1 spec, 7.6.1 says that afterCompletion cannot access enterprise beans View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4103387#4103387 Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&p=4103387