Something fishy in JPA ... The structure is like this: * ejb_pkg_scope.ear ** ejb_pkg_scope.jap *** META-INF **** persistence.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <persistence xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence" version="1.0"> <persistence-unit name="CTS-SCOPE-UNIT"> <description>Persistence Unit for CTS EE Propagation Tests. If the transaction-type is not specified, the default is JTA.</description> <jta-data-source>jdbc/DB1</jta-data-source> <jar-file>lib/common.jar</jar-file> </persistence-unit> </persistence> In our JPA we do this: public void start() throws Exception { log.info("Starting persistence unit " + kernelName); Properties props = new Properties(); props.putAll(defaultPersistenceProperties); props.put(HibernatePersistence.JACC_CONTEXT_ID, getJaccContextId()); List<URL> jarFiles = new ArrayList<URL>(); Set<String> files = metaData.getJarFiles(); if (files != null) { for (String jar : files) { jarFiles.add(getRelativeURL(jar)); } } VirtualFile root = getPersistenceUnitRoot(); log.debug("Persistence root: " + root); // hack the JPA url URL url = VFSUtils.getCompatibleURL(root); PersistenceUnitInfoImpl pi = new PersistenceUnitInfoImpl(metaData, props, di.getClassLoader(), url, jarFiles, initialContext); private URL getRelativeURL(String jar) { try { return new URL(jar); } catch (MalformedURLException e) { try { URL url = di.getFile("").toURL(); return new URL(url, jar); <--- XXX } catch (Exception e1) { throw new RuntimeException("could not find relative path: " + jar, e1); } } } How should this know that it actually shouldn't go and look into .jar, but .ear instead? Beats me ... as XXX clearly points to .jar's path. Shelly McGowan wrote: