The JPA 2.0 specification in section 8.2 states the requirements for packaging. It says
A persistence unit is defined by a
persistence.xml file. The jar file or
directory whose META-INF directory
contains the persistence.xml file is
termed the root of the persistence
unit.
In Java EE environments, the root of a
persistence unit must be one of the
following:
- an EJB-JAR file
- the WEB-INF/classes directory of a WAR file[80]
- a jar file in the WEB-INF/lib directory of a WAR file
- a jar file in the EAR library directory
- an application client jar file
It is not required that an EJB-JAR or
WAR file containing a persistence unit
be packaged in an EAR unless the
persistence unit contains persistence
classes in addition to those contained
within the EJB-JAR or WAR. See Section
8.2.1.6.
You can read the rest of the chapter if you deem it necessary. In Eclipse that means that you need to configure the dependencies between your projects to ensure the deployment files are packaged appropriately. You typically configure that in Project->Properties->Build Path in the Projects tab.
However, I am not sure if Eclipse packages it up as required for Web server deployment. I know it does in a EAR project.