Looks like when you call the merge, the "flush" happens at the end of the transaction. And the @PrePersist gets called through the transaction callback methods. As a result your IllegalStateException gets wrapped into a RollbackException. Try this: if (order.getId() != null) { | entityManager.merge(order); | //flush immidiately | entityManager.flush(); | FacesUtil.addInfoMessage("Order Number: " + order.getOrderNumber() +" was successfully updated."); | } | View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4157382#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...