I'm trying to use the AbstractJmsMessageDrivenBean. I've wrapped up a Spring service and deployed it in a EAR to a Websphere 6.1 server. Everything works fine when a JMS message is received from the MQ queue (defined in the ListenerPort).

Problem is that I want the MDB to startup at application startup. Then in my onEjbCreate() method I can perform initialization. Is there a way to have the MDB EJB startup when the EAR application starts? I've tried everything including a WAS startup variable 'com.ibm.websphere.ejbcontainer.initializeEJBsAtSt artup=true' but my MDB EJB still isn't started until the 1st message is received.

Or is there a better way to perform initialization (which requires the Spring context is initialized) using the AbstractJmsMessageDrivenBean?