I've done some more reasearch. In my static getHome method I added the following debugging code:

Object ref = initialContext.lookup("java:comp/env/ejb/Contact");

// Debug
Class[] interfaces = ref.getClass().getInterfaces();
for (int index = 0; index < interfaces.length; index++) {
Class interface = interfaces[index];

// Skip javax.ejb.Handle interface
if (interface.toString().equals(ContactHome.class.toString()) {
log.debug("getHome: Server ClassLoader is " + interface.getClassLoader());
log.debug("getHome: Client ClassLoader is " + ContactHome.class.getClassLoader());
}
}

try {
return (ContactHome) PortableRemoteObject.narrow(ref, ContactHome.class);
}
catch (Exception e) {
log.error("getHome: Failed to narrow ContactHome", e);
}

When running the default 3.2.2RC3 Tomcat bundle (4.1), the following log messages are generated:

DEBUG ContactUtil getHome: Server ClassLoader is org.jboss.mx.loading.UnifiedClassLoader3@153c017{ url=file:/usr/local/java/jboss-3.2.2RC3/server/default/tmp/deploy/tmp64909phoenix.ear ,addedOrder=43}
DEBUG ContactUtil getHome: Client ClassLoader is org.jboss.mx.loading.UnifiedClassLoader3@153c017{ url=file:/usr/local/java/jboss-3.2.2RC3/server/default/tmp/deploy/tmp64909phoenix.ear ,addedOrder=43}

When running the rebuilt 3.2.2RC3 with Tomcat 5.0 bundle the following log messages are generated:

DEBUG ContactUtil getHome: Server ClassLoader is org.jboss.mx.loading.UnifiedClassLoader3@1d41410{ url=file:/usr/local/java/jboss-3.2.2RC3_tomcat-5.0.9/server/default/tmp/deploy/tmp38129phoenix.ear ,addedOrder=46}
DEBUG ContactUtil getHome: Client ClassLoader is WebappClassLoader
delegate: false
repositories:
/WEB-INF/classes/
----------> Parent Classloader:
java.net.FactoryURLClassLoader@cee11e
ERROR ContactUtil getHome: Failed to narrow ContactHome
java.lang.ClassCastException
at com.sun.corba.se.internal.javax.rmi.PortableRemoteObject.narrow(PortableRemoteObject.java:293)
at javax.rmi.PortableRemoteObject.narrow(PortableRemoteObject.java:134)
at com.newedgenetworks.phoenix.ejb.entity.ContactUtil.getHome(DbSearchUtil.java:110)
at com.newedgenetworks.phoenix.servlet.ContactHandler.handleFind(QueryHandler.java:109)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
at com.newedgenetworks.phoenix.servlet.RequestHandler.handleRequest(RequestHandler.java:370)
at com.newedgenetworks.phoenix.servlet.RequestHandler.doRequest(RequestHandler.java:226)
at org.apache.velocity.servlet.VelocityServlet.doPost(VelocityServlet.java:342)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:763)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:856)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:286)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:258)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardValveContext.invokeNext(StandardValveContext.java:151)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:564)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invokeInternal(StandardContextValve.java:256)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:210)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardValveContext.invokeNext(StandardValveContext.java:151)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:577)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardValveContext.invokeNext(StandardValveContext.java:149)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:564)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:196)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardValveContext.invokeNext(StandardValveContext.java:151)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:175)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardValveContext.invokeNext(StandardValveContext.java:149)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:577)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardValveContext.invokeNext(StandardValveContext.java:149)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:564)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:156)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardValveContext.invokeNext(StandardValveContext.java:151)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:564)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:974)
at org.apache.coyote.tomcat5.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:207)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:647)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:497)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:575)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:649)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)


WebappClassLoader is a class in both versions of Tomcat (org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader), so I think I was on to something when I mentioned the lack of UseJBossWebLoader JMX attribute in the new Tomcat5 MBean in my previous post.

What am I doing on the forums? - I should file a bug report...

Well I found a work-around...

My project has had the following spec-compliant layout since day one (about a year ago!):

phoenix.ear!META-INF/application.xml
phoenix.ear!META-INF/jboss-app.xml
phoenix.ear!lib/commons-lang.jar
phoenix.ear!lib/phoenix-client.jar
phoenix.ear!lib/phoenix-client.jar!com/newedgenetworks/phoenix/ejb/entity/Contact.class
phoenix.ear!lib/phoenix-client.jar!com/newedgenetworks/phoenix/ejb/entity/ContactHome.class
phoenix.ear!lib/phoenix-client.jar!com/newedgenetworks/phoenix/ejb/entity/ContactPK.class
phoenix.ear!lib/phoenix-client.jar!com/newedgenetworks/phoenix/ejb/entity/ContactUtil.class
phoenix.ear!lib/phoenix-client.jar!com/newedgenetworks/phoenix/ejb/entity/ContactValue.class
phoenix.ear!phoenix-ejb.jar
phoenix.ear!phoenix-ejb.jar!META-INF/ejb-jar.xml
phoenix.ear!phoenix-ejb.jar!META-INF/jboss.xml
phoenix.ear!phoenix-ejb.jar!META-INF/jbosscmp-jdbc.xml
phoenix.ear!phoenix-ejb.jar!com/newedgenetworks/phoenix/ejb/entity/ContactBean.class
phoenix.ear!phoenix-ejb.jar!com/newedgenetworks/phoenix/ejb/entity/ContactCMP.class
phoenix.ear!phoenix-ejb.jar!com/newedgenetworks/phoenix/ejb/entity/ContactLocal.class
phoenix.ear!phoenix-ejb.jar!com/newedgenetworks/phoenix/ejb/entity/ContactLocalHome.class
phoenix.ear!phoenix.war
phoenix.ear!phoenix.war!WEB-INF/classes/com/newedgenetworks/phoenix/servlet/ContactHandler.class
phoenix.ear!phoenix.war!WEB-INF/classes/com/newedgenetworks/phoenix/servlet/RequestHandler.class
phoenix.ear!phoenix.war!WEB-INF/jboss-web.xml
phoenix.ear!phoenix.war!WEB-INF/lib/commons-lang.jar
phoenix.ear!phoenix.war!WEB-INF/lib/phoenix-client.jar
phoenix.ear!phoenix.war!WEB-INF/lib/velocity.jar
phoenix.ear!phoenix.war!WEB-INF/velocity.properties
phoenix.ear!phoenix.war!WEB-INF/web.xml

I trimmed this listing down to only what was relevant to the stacktrace in the previous post, also note the bang (!) notation representing expansion of a jar.

Anyway, phoenix-client.jar, which contains the remote interfaces, appears in this listing more than once, first in the ear/lib and second in the war/WEB-INF/lib. I do this because occasionally I want to deploy the web app in a stand-alone servlet container. I also package the phoenix-client.jar this way because I share it with other applications.

The solution was to simply remove the phoenix-client.jar from the war/WEB-INF directory.