If you have well written clients which always close their connection(s) properly before exiting then any unacknowledged messages will be returned immediately to the queue(s) on close of those connection(s), otherwise the after the client exits the server will eventually time out that client and close its resources automatically. That time is governed by the ping settings (see user guide) View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4167185#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...