To add some followup and more information: It seems to be related to authorization in the security-domain portion of standalone.xml. I can add a authorization tag and set the policy-module to code PermitAll and then it starts working, but that is circumvention the ejb-security and just allowing everything to go through. It's not a remoting issue because as the logs show the interface is "Local".

I've tried most everything I can find for suggestions, but it's just not working. I don't know how to setup authorization as a Database login module, but I should think I don't need to do that. There are no obvious examples in the quickstarts.

This on Wildfly 10. Another output from the logs .. hopefully more detail.

2017-01-29 13:59:27,630 DEBUG [org.jboss.security] (default task-12) PBOX00291: Method: merge, interface: Local, required roles: Roles(USER,)

2017-01-29 13:59:27,630 DEBUG [org.jboss.security] (default task-12) PBOX00292: Insufficient method permissions [principal: org.wildfly.extension.undertow.security.AccountImpl$AccountPrincipal@7d289613, EJB name: UserService, method: merge, interface: Local, required roles: Roles(USER,), principal roles: Roles(**,), run-as roles: null]

2017-01-29 13:59:27,630 DEBUG [org.jboss.security] (default task-12) PBOX00299: Required module org.jboss.security.authorization.modules.DelegatingAuthorizationModule failed

2017-01-29 13:59:27,630 DEBUG [org.jboss.security] (default task-12) PBOX00325: Authorization processing error: org.jboss.security.authorization.AuthorizationException: PBOX00017: Acces denied: authorization failed

  at org.jboss.security.plugins.authorization.JBossAuthorizationContext.invokeAuthorize(JBossAuthorizationContext.java:274)

  at org.jboss.security.plugins.authorization.JBossAuthorizationContext.access$000(JBossAuthorizationContext.java:71)

  at org.jboss.security.plugins.authorization.JBossAuthorizationContext$1.run(JBossAuthorizationContext.java:147)

  at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)

then ..

2017-01-29 13:59:27,631 TRACE [org.jboss.security.audit] (default task-12) [Failure]Resource:=[org.jboss.security.authorization.resources.EJBResource:contextMap={policyRegistration=null}:method=public opca.model.User opca.service.UserService.merge(opca.model.User):ejbMethodInterface=Local:ejbName=UserService:ejbPrincipal=org.wildfly.extension.undertow.security.AccountImpl$AccountPrincipal@7d289613:MethodRoles=Roles(USER,):securityRoleReferences=null:callerSubject=Subject:

  Principal: test@test.com

  Principal: roles(members:USER)

  Principal: CallerPrincipal(members:test@test.com)

:callerRunAs=null:callerRunAs=null:ejbRestrictionEnforcement=false:ejbVersion=2.0];Action=authorization;Source=org.jboss.security.plugins.javaee.EJBAuthorizationHelper;policyRegistration=null;Exception:=PBOX00017: Acces denied: authorization failed ;

2017-01-29 13:59:27,631 TRACE [org.jboss.security] (default task-12) PBOX00354: Setting security roles ThreadLocal: null

2017-01-29 13:59:27,632 ERROR [org.jboss.as.ejb3.invocation] (default task-12) WFLYEJB0034: EJB Invocation failed on component UserService for method public opca.model.User opca.service.UserService.merge(opca.model.User): javax.ejb.EJBAccessException: WFLYEJB0364: Invocation on method: public opca.model.User opca.service.UserService.merge(opca.model.User) of bean: UserService is not allowed

  at org.jboss.as.ejb3.security.AuthorizationInterceptor.processInvocation(AuthorizationInterceptor.java:134)

  at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:340)

  at org.jboss.as.ejb3.security.SecurityContextInterceptor.processInvocation(SecurityContextInterceptor.java:100)

  at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:340)

  at org.jboss.as.ejb3.deployment.processors.StartupAwaitInterceptor.processInvocation(StartupAwaitInterceptor.java:22)

  at org.jboss.invocation.InterceptorContext.proceed(InterceptorContext.java:340)

The answer was to change

<module-option name="rolesQuery" value="select r.role, 'roles' from user_role ur inner join role r on r.id = ur.roles_id inner join user u on u.id = ur.user_id where u.email = ?"/>

to

<module-option name="rolesQuery" value="select r.role, 'Roles' from user_role ur inner join role r on r.id = ur.roles_id inner join user u on u.id = ur.user_id where u.email = ?"/>