anonymous wrote : How does the use of Valve minimise it? Valve still needs to be synchronised. It synchronizes access to the attribute isRunning but it releases the attribute very fast, while lock will require synchronizationo for the entire call. With Locks: handleInvocation: .... lock. .... performAspect .... release lock with Valves: handleInvocation .... lock .... access atributes .... verify if the valve is free .... release locks ..... perform Aspect View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3995037#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...