I am getting the following exception working with hibernate:

org.hibernate.LazyInitializationException: could not initialize proxy - the owning Session was closed
at org.hibernate.proxy.AbstractLazyInitializer.initialize(AbstractLazyInitializer.java:53)
at org.hibernate.proxy.AbstractLazyInitializer.getImplementation(AbstractLazyInitializer.java:84)
at org.hibernate.proxy.CGLIBLazyInitializer.intercept(CGLIBLazyInitializer.java:134)
at com.benefitpoint.cmp.security.Permission$$EnhancerByCGLIB$$15036d4c.hashCode(<generated>)
at java.util.HashMap.hash(HashMap.java:261)
at java.util.HashMap.containsKey(HashMap.java:339)
at java.util.HashSet.contains(HashSet.java:180)

This doesn’t happen every time I access this particular page. I have narrowed it down to the following scenario:

• Request A retrieves objects from hibernate. The objects include lazy loaded collections and object graphs which are not full navigated and therefore only partially realized.
• Request A results in those same objects being stored in the L2 cache (ehcache)
• Request B retrieves objects from hibernate. The objects retrieved include some of the same objects stored in L2 cache from request A.
• When request B navigates to those objects which are not realized from the previous process, the exception above is thrown.

As I debug, it looks like the proxied set in these not realized objects has a reference to a session which is closed. I set debug points on the session impl and did not see a preceeding close in the request. It seems to me that this session reference is a stale reference from Request A (?). To complicate matters, the application makes use of hibernate is some non-standard ways. Request A does not use the OpenSessionInViewFilter, Request B does. Request A uses more manual hibernate processing whereas Request B uses a more standard spring stack.

My questions:

• Does hibernate support storing non-realized lazy objects in the L2 cache for future use by a different session?
• Is this likely an issue with a mis-configuration of hibernate in the application?

My environment:

Hibernate 3.0.5
Spring 1.2.7
JDK 1.4.2
Ehcache 1.1


Thanks in advance.

Ben