I have a SAR deployment that works in AS 4.2.3. It no longer deploys in AS 7.1.1.Final. The problem is due to the fact that the java:properties element is no longer supported in AS 7 whereas it was supported in AS 4.2.3.

Here's what my jboss-service.xml looks like that FAILS to parse in AS 7 (this works in AS 4.2.3):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<server xmlns="urn:jboss:service:7.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="urn:jboss:service:7.0 jboss-service_7_0.xsd">

<mbean code="org.rhq.enterprise.server.core.comm.ServerCommunicationsService"
name="rhq:service=ServerCommunications">

<attribute name="ConfigurationOverrides" serialDataType="jbxb">
<java:properties xmlns:java="urn:jboss:java-properties"
xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xs:schemaLocation="urn:jboss:java-properties resource:java-properties_1_0.xsd">
<java:property>
<java:key>foo</java:key>
<java:value>bar</java:value>
</java:property>
</java:properties>
</attribute>

</mbean>
</server>

Notice the <attribute> has a child "java:properties" because the MBean uses Properties as the attribute type.

Here's the AS7 error I see in the log when that SAR attempts to be deployed:

22:30:31,921 ERROR [org.jboss.msc.service.fail] (MSC service thread 1-7) MSC00001: Failed to start service jboss.deployment.unit."rhq-enterprise-server-services.sar".PARSE: org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.deployment.unit."rhq-enterprise-server-services.sar".PARSE: Failed to process phase PARSE of deployment "rhq-enterprise-server-services.sar"
at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:119) [jboss-as-server-7.1.1.Final.jar:7.1.1.Final]
at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.startService(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1811) [jboss-msc-1.0.2.GA.jar:1.0.2.GA]
at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.run(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1746) [jboss-msc-1.0.2.GA.jar:1.0.2.GA]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886) [rt.jar:1.6.0_29]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908) [rt.jar:1.6.0_29]
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662) [rt.jar:1.6.0_29]
Caused by: org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitProcessingException: JBAS017224: Failed to parse service xml ["/home/mazz/source/rhq/dev-container/jbossas/standalone/deployments/rhq-enterprise-server-services.sar/META-INF/jboss-service.xml"]
at org.jboss.as.service.ServiceDeploymentParsingProcessor.deploy(ServiceDeploymentParsingProcessor.java:95)
at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:113) [jboss-as-server-7.1.1.Final.jar:7.1.1.Final]
... 5 more
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Not a textual event (START_ELEMENT)
at com.ctc.wstx.sr.BasicStreamReader.throwNotTextual(BasicStreamReader.java:5444)
at com.ctc.wstx.sr.BasicStreamReader.getText(BasicStreamReader.java:833)
at org.jboss.staxmapper.XMLExtendedStreamReaderImpl.getText(XMLExtendedStreamReaderImpl.java:275) [staxmapper-1.1.0.Final.jar:1.1.0.Final]
at org.jboss.as.service.descriptor.JBossServiceXmlDescriptorParser.unexpectedContent(JBossServiceXmlDescriptorParser.java:622)
at org.jboss.as.service.descriptor.JBossServiceXmlDescriptorParser.parseAttribute(JBossServiceXmlDescriptorParser.java:346)
at org.jboss.as.service.descriptor.JBossServiceXmlDescriptorParser.parseMBean(JBossServiceXmlDescriptorParser.java:257)
at org.jboss.as.service.descriptor.JBossServiceXmlDescriptorParser.readElement(JBossServiceXmlDescriptorParser.java:183)
at org.jboss.as.service.descriptor.JBossServiceXmlDescriptorParser.readElement(JBossServiceXmlDescriptorParser.java:46)
at org.jboss.staxmapper.XMLMapperImpl.processNested(XMLMapperImpl.java:110) [staxmapper-1.1.0.Final.jar:1.1.0.Final]
at org.jboss.staxmapper.XMLMapperImpl.parseDocument(XMLMapperImpl.java:69) [staxmapper-1.1.0.Final.jar:1.1.0.Final]
at org.jboss.as.service.ServiceDeploymentParsingProcessor.deploy(ServiceDeploymentParsingProcessor.java:88)
... 6 more

If I were to completely remove the <attribute> XML and the child elements, this SAR deploys in AS7 without that error. I can only assume the source of the problem is because <java:properties> type is no longer supported.

I don't know if this means anything but I looked in <as7-install-dir>/docs/schema and I do not see any java-properties_1_0.xsd (this file that is hosted on jboss.org: http://www.jboss.org/j2ee/schema/java-properties_1_0.xsd )