It depends what the VirtualFile reference means. It isn't valid in general, just as File handles aren't serializable, but (I think?) the VFS will try to reconstruct the path from what it knows for files. If it is deployed on the server side and references the file on the server rather than on the client (and they use different file systems), it doesn't mean anything. It's broken. If it sent a VFS file that used a webdav protocol that said "get your resources from this server" then that would be a different issue. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4133846#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...