Application fails to deploy in EAP 7 with IllegalStateException: Failed to resolve expression

Issue

• Our application is failing to deploy in EAP 7 with IllegalStateException: Failed to resolve expression such as:

ERROR [org.jboss.msc.service.fail] (MSC service thread 1-5) MSC000001: Failed to start service jboss.deployment.unit."mdb.jar".PARSE: org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.deployment.unit."mdb.jar".PARSE: WFLYSRV0153: Failed to process phase PARSE of deployment "mdb.jar"
    at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:189)
...
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to resolve expression: jms.destination
    at org.jboss.metadata.property.DefaultExpressionReplacer.parseAndResolve(DefaultExpressionReplacer.java:232)
    at org.jboss.metadata.property.DefaultExpressionReplacer.resolveExpressionStringRecursively(DefaultExpressionReplacer.java:92)
    at org.jboss.metadata.property.DefaultExpressionReplacer.replaceProperties(DefaultExpressionReplacer.java:76)
    at org.jboss.metadata.parser.util.MetaDataElementParser.getElementText(MetaDataElementParser.java:200)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.ActivationConfigPropertyMetaDataParser.processElement(ActivationConfigPropertyMetaDataParser.java:57)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.ActivationConfigPropertyMetaDataParser.processElement(ActivationConfigPropertyMetaDataParser.java:36)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.AbstractMetaDataParser.processElements(AbstractMetaDataParser.java:65)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.ActivationConfigPropertyMetaDataParser.parse(ActivationConfigPropertyMetaDataParser.java:44)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.ActivationConfigMetaDataParser.processElement(ActivationConfigMetaDataParser.java:59)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.ActivationConfigMetaDataParser.processElement(ActivationConfigMetaDataParser.java:37)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.AbstractMetaDataParser.processElements(AbstractMetaDataParser.java:65)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.ActivationConfigMetaDataParser.parse(ActivationConfigMetaDataParser.java:45)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.AbstractMessageDrivenBeanParser.processElement(AbstractMessageDrivenBeanParser.java:71)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.MessageDrivenBean31Parser.processElement(MessageDrivenBean31Parser.java:67)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.MessageDrivenBean31Parser.processElement(MessageDrivenBean31Parser.java:41)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.AbstractMetaDataParser.processElements(AbstractMetaDataParser.java:65)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.AbstractMessageDrivenBeanParser.parse(AbstractMessageDrivenBeanParser.java:61)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.EnterpriseBeansMetaDataParser.processElement(EnterpriseBeansMetaDataParser.java:93)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.EnterpriseBeansMetaDataParser.processElement(EnterpriseBeansMetaDataParser.java:39)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.AbstractMetaDataParser.processElements(AbstractMetaDataParser.java:65)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.EnterpriseBeansMetaDataParser.parse(EnterpriseBeansMetaDataParser.java:72)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.EnterpriseBeansMetaDataParser.parse(EnterpriseBeansMetaDataParser.java:65)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.AbstractEjbJarMetaDataParser.processElement(AbstractEjbJarMetaDataParser.java:98)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.AbstractEjbJarMetaDataParser.processElement(AbstractEjbJarMetaDataParser.java:43)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.AbstractMetaDataParser.processElements(AbstractMetaDataParser.java:65)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.EjbJarMetaDataParser.parseDocument(EjbJarMetaDataParser.java:101)
    at org.jboss.metadata.ejb.parser.spec.EjbJarMetaDataParser.parse(EjbJarMetaDataParser.java:51)
    at org.jboss.as.ejb3.deployment.processors.EjbJarParsingDeploymentUnitProcessor.parseEjbJarXml(EjbJarParsingDeploymentUnitProcessor.java:267)
    at org.jboss.as.ejb3.deployment.processors.EjbJarParsingDeploymentUnitProcessor.deploy(EjbJarParsingDeploymentUnitProcessor.java:125)
    at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:182)
    ... 8 more

• application is failing to deploy with:

ERROR [org.jboss.msc.service.fail] (MSC service thread 1-7) MSC000001: Failed to start service jboss.deployment.unit."mdb2.jar".PARSE: org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.deployment.unit."mdb2.jar".PARSE: WFLYSRV0153: Failed to process phase PARSE of deployment "mdb2.jar"
    at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:189)
...
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to resolve expression: jms.destination
    at org.jboss.metadata.property.DefaultExpressionReplacer.parseAndResolve(DefaultExpressionReplacer.java:232)
    at org.jboss.metadata.property.DefaultExpressionReplacer.resolveExpressionStringRecursively(DefaultExpressionReplacer.java:92)
    at org.jboss.metadata.property.DefaultExpressionReplacer.replaceProperties(DefaultExpressionReplacer.java:76)
    at org.jboss.as.ejb3.deployment.processors.MessageDrivenComponentDescriptionFactory.getActivationConfigProperties(MessageDrivenComponentDescriptionFactory.java:246)
    at org.jboss.as.ejb3.deployment.processors.MessageDrivenComponentDescriptionFactory.processMessageBeans(MessageDrivenComponentDescriptionFactory.java:115)
    at org.jboss.as.ejb3.deployment.processors.MessageDrivenComponentDescriptionFactory.processAnnotations(MessageDrivenComponentDescriptionFactory.java:83)
    at org.jboss.as.ejb3.deployment.processors.AnnotatedEJBComponentDescriptionDeploymentUnitProcessor.processAnnotations(AnnotatedEJBComponentDescriptionDeploymentUnitProcessor.java:150)
    at org.jboss.as.ejb3.deployment.processors.AnnotatedEJBComponentDescriptionDeploymentUnitProcessor.deploy(AnnotatedEJBComponentDescriptionDeploymentUnitProcessor.java:82)
    at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:182)
    ... 8 more