FYI, please note that the "current" above means the current HEAD code, which works somewhat differently from the currently released code (1.4.0.SP1). In 1.4.0.SP1: If the state provider has a failure marshalling transient, associated or persistent state, it returns null for the entire state transfer. The recipient interprets the null as a failure. On the recipient side, if there is a problem integrating the transient state, associated state is *not* integrated. Don't remember why I did it that way; probably because associated is useless without the transient state. However, if there's a problem integrating either transient or associated state, integration of persistent state is still allowed to proceed. That behavior of allowing persistent to proceed after a failure with transient goes back a long way. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3971375#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...