We are trying to use variable substitution via properties-service inside our ear file in application.xml and ejb-jar.xml. Those variable will not be replaced after a restart of JBoss but are replaced after a redeploy of the ear.
The logs of the JBoss start indicate that the descriptors are parsed before the property-service has a chance to add our property file to the system properties.

Are variables in deployment descriptors even supported? Can we start the property service before the descriptors get parsed?
We are using JBoss 5.1.0 with JDK 1.6.

For example in application.xml: <context-root>${name.mn}</context-root>

The log shows:
10:45:01,603 INFO [ContainerDependencyMetaData] addJndiDependency, JndiDependencyMetaData@1c35b98{ejb/mn/SystemFacadeEJB}
10:45:01,603 INFO [ContainerDependencyMetaData] addJndiDependency, JndiDependencyMetaData@b25f37{ejb/mn/ComponentFacadeEJB}
10:45:01,603 INFO [ContainerDependencyMetaData] addJndiDependency, JndiDependencyMetaData@891e7e{ejb/mn/PersonFacadeEJB}
10:45:01,603 INFO [ContainerDependencyMetaData] addJndiDependency, JndiDependencyMetaData@31086c{ejb/mn/StakeholderFacadeEJB}
10:45:01,603 INFO [ContainerDependencyMetaData] addJndiDependency, JndiDependencyMetaData@12023ff{ejb/mn/DependencyFacadeEJB}
10:45:01,652 INFO [Ejb3DependenciesDeployer] Encountered deployment AbstractVFSDeploymentContext@28663548{vfsfile:/app/jboss/jboss-5.1.0.GA/server/te
st/deploy/profileservice-secured.jar/}
10:45:01,654 INFO [Ejb3DependenciesDeployer] Encountered deployment AbstractVFSDeploymentContext@28663548{vfsfile:/app/jboss/jboss-5.1.0.GA/server/te
st/deploy/profileservice-secured.jar/}
10:45:01,654 INFO [Ejb3DependenciesDeployer] Encountered deployment AbstractVFSDeploymentContext@28663548{vfsfile:/app/jboss/jboss-5.1.0.GA/server/te
st/deploy/profileservice-secured.jar/}
10:45:01,654 INFO [Ejb3DependenciesDeployer] Encountered deployment AbstractVFSDeploymentContext@28663548{vfsfile:/app/jboss/jboss-5.1.0.GA/server/te
st/deploy/profileservice-secured.jar/}
10:45:01,656 INFO [Ejb3DependenciesDeployer] Encountered deployment AbstractVFSDeploymentContext@8662471{vfszip:/app/jboss/jboss-5.1.0.GA/server/test
/deploy/maintenancenotification.ear/maintenancenotification_ejb.jar/}
10:45:01,656 INFO [Ejb3DependenciesDeployer] Encountered deployment AbstractVFSDeploymentContext@8662471{vfszip:/app/jboss/jboss-5.1.0.GA/server/test
/deploy/maintenancenotification.ear/maintenancenotification_ejb.jar/}
10:45:01,656 INFO [Ejb3DependenciesDeployer] Encountered deployment AbstractVFSDeploymentContext@8662471{vfszip:/app/jboss/jboss-5.1.0.GA/server/test
/deploy/maintenancenotification.ear/maintenancenotification_ejb.jar/}
10:45:04,038 INFO [JMXConnectorServerService] JMX Connector server: service:jmx:rmi://127.0.0.1/jndi/rmi://127.0.0.1:1090/jmxconnector
10:45:04,214 INFO [MailService] Mail Service bound to java:/Mail
10:45:05,032 INFO [SystemPropertiesService] Loaded system properties from: file:/data/jboss/server/test/conf/mn.properties

....
10:45:19,416 INFO [TomcatDeployment] deploy, ctxPath=/${name.mn}