Yep, I thought so :-) To get 'stale connection' like behavior you want to add one of the following to your *-ds.xml file: | <check-valid-connection-sql> | <valid-connection-checker-class-name> | Please read the FAQ for the particulars on these settings. There is a lot of other useful information in there as well :-) FAQ http://wiki.jboss.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=FAQJBossJCA Also see: http://wiki.jboss.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=ConfigDataSources http://wiki.jboss.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=JBossJCAPooling Also see View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4030171#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...