I have the same issue using jboss-4.2.2.GA and JBossWS2.0.1SP2 or JBossWS2.0.3. I need to make my .war dependent on the service that provides the data being served by the web service. My .war contains a single class; it uses @WebService and @WebMethod to tag what needs to be exposed to the wsdl. I used a < depends > element in jboss-web.xml to make the .war dependent on the service. Unfortunately it appears that the DeploymentAspectManagerImpl is executing despite the .war still waiting for creation/startup. My guess is that JAXWSMetaDataBuilderJSE then tries to pull the classloader while the .war is in this state and receives null. Is there another way to accomplish this dependency? Here's a snippet of the log after the interceptors have been set up: | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.deployment.MainDeployer] Done with create step of deploying TEST.war | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.deployment.MainDeployer] Begin deployment start file:/C:/jboss-4.2.2.GA/server/default/deploy/TEST.war/ | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.system.ServiceController] starting service jboss.web.deployment:war=TEST.war,id=-1578707402 | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.system.ServiceController] Start requested before create, calling create now for service: jboss.web.deployment:war=TEST.war,id=-1578707402 | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.system.ServiceController] Creating service jboss.web.deployment:war=TEST.war,id=-1578707402 | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.system.ServiceController] waiting in create of jboss.web.deployment:war=TEST.war,id=-1578707402 waiting on test.test:service=TEST.0 | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.system.ServiceController] waiting in start jboss.web.deployment:war=TEST.war,id=-1578707402 on test.test:service=TEST.0 | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.wsf.container.jboss42.JAXWSDeployerHookPostJSE] deploy: TEST.war | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.wsf.framework.DefaultSPIProvider] provide SPI 'class org.jboss.wsf.spi.deployment.DeploymentAspectManagerFactory' | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.wsf.framework.DefaultSPIProvider] class org.jboss.wsf.spi.deployment.DeploymentAspectManagerFactory Implementation: org.jboss.wsf.framework.deployment.DefaultDeploymentAspectManagerFactory@709366 | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.wsf.framework.deployment.DefaultDeploymentAspectManagerFactory] DeploymentAspectManager for: WSDeploymentAspectManagerPostJSE | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.wsf.framework.deployment.DeploymentAspectManagerImpl] RuntimeLoaderDeploymentAspect:Create | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.wsf.framework.deployment.DeploymentAspectManagerImpl] JAXBIntroDeploymentAspect:Create | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.wsf.framework.deployment.DeploymentAspectManagerImpl] UnifiedMetaDataDeploymentAspect:Create | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 DEBUG [org.jboss.ws.metadata.builder.jaxws.JAXWSMetaDataBuilderJSE] START buildMetaData: [name=TEST.war] | 2008-03-05 10:08:22,953 ERROR [org.jboss.deployment.MainDeployer] Could not start deployment: file:/C:/jboss-4.2.2.GA/server/default/deploy/TEST.war/ | View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4134298#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...