Actually using MBeans is better than just having it read a config file somewhere. With the bean, I get to store properties, and yes, that is more cumbersome than putting them in a config file. But I get to do more: I can have the bean not only store the path to the file storage directory, but also check the status (permissions), create it, clear it, give statistics about it, etc. So it's a reasonable way. It is a bit of XML to manage, but it's workable. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4075416#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...