I solved my problem, kind of obvious now I know Seam a bit better: 1) created an application scope component that does the DB initialization in an @Create component (do not use @Startup for this component) 2) Inject this into the first component (using @In(create=true) that gets called in the application - the application scope ensures that the component only is created once... right? Looks like its working anyway. Thanks all! View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4039976#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...