With 4.0.4.GA it won't work; seems the xml override of the clustering config was not added until EBJ3 RC9 -- see http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/EJBTHREE-569 . I'm surprised 4.0.4.GA + EJB3 RC9 didn't work; I tested overriding the load balance policy for a SLSB and using an SFSB cluster-configured solely from xml (no annotation); in both cases they worked fine. An SLSB w/o annotations would use the exact same code path. I haven't tried w/ 4.0.5.RC1, although I have with the latest Branch_4_0 code from CVS, where it worked. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3976779#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...