afaik, the ejb-local-ref elements allow a bean to lookup the other bean. so they should refer to the other bean. your correction would enable a bean to lookup itself. at least that's what i remember of it. can you run the enterprise test suite ? then make your correction and see if the enterprise test suite still runs after your correction. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4095981#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...