em.persist should work. But there are some mistakes in your architecture. If there is a underlying JSF page that uses the "group" component, you need to make the bean a Stateful Bean. Furthermore, the PersistenceContext needs to be EXTENDED. Otherwise the entity will get detached, and that's the reason why persisting failed. Have a look at how persistence works: http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&t=88460 View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3967175#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...