Cannot use identity column key generation with <union-subclass> ( TABLE_PER_CLASS )

com.something.SuperClass:

@Entity
@Inheritance(strategy = InheritanceType.TABLE_PER_CLASS)
public abstract class SuperClass implements Serializable {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = -695503064509648117L;

    long confirmationCode;

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO) // Causes exception!!!
    public long getConfirmationCode() {
        return confirmationCode;
    }

    public void setConfirmationCode(long confirmationCode) {
        this.confirmationCode = confirmationCode;
    }
}

com.something.SubClass:

@Entity
public abstract class Subclass extends SuperClass {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 8623159397061057722L;

    String name;

    @Column(nullable = false)
    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }
}

Gives me this exception:

Caused by: org.hibernate.MappingException: Cannot use identity column key
generation with <union-subclass> mapping for: com.something.SuperClass

What's the best and most convenient way for me to generate the ID's? I do not want to change my inheritance strategy.

The problem here is that you mix "table-per-class" inheritance and GenerationType.Auto. Consider an identity column in MsSQL. It is column based. In a "table-per-class" strategy you use one table per class and each one has an ID.

Try:

@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.TABLE)