Log4j 1.2.14 has direct support for the trace logging level. Earlier versions of JBoss used older versions of log4j which did not support the trace level. The NoSuchFieldError: TRACE that appears in the first post refers to class org.apache.log4j.Level. It evidences the presence of an older log4j version in the classpath. In my case I was getting this error in the client side. It turned out that my classpath contained an older version of log4j which was not compatible with the jboss 4.2 libraries. Upgrading log4j to version 1.2.14 did the trick for me. I mention it here in case these findings help someone. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4051152#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...