Index: impl/src/java/org/sakaiproject/hierarchy/impl/HierarchyServiceImpl.java
===================================================================
--- impl/src/java/org/sakaiproject/hierarchy/impl/HierarchyServiceImpl.java	(revision 84013)
+++ impl/src/java/org/sakaiproject/hierarchy/impl/HierarchyServiceImpl.java	(working copy)
@@ -959,6 +959,50 @@
         metaDatas.add(metaData);
         Set[] entitySets = new Set[] { pNodes, metaDatas };
         dao.saveMixedSet(entitySets);
+        /* NORMALLY the code below should not be needed, however, 
+         * we are seeing weird cases where the line above fails to create the metadata
+         * so the code below is meant to detect that case and correct it by saving
+         * each separately and realigning the ids manually
+         */
+        if (metaData.getId() == null) {
+            // something went wrong and we're not sure what so delete pNode
+            if (pNode.getId() != null) {
+                dao.delete(pNode);
+            }
+            throw new RuntimeException("Metadata didn't save, node was removed: "+pNode);
+        } else if (pNode.getId() == null) {
+            // something went wrong and we're not sure what so delete metadata
+            if (metaData.getId() != null) {
+                dao.delete(metaData);
+            }
+            throw new RuntimeException("Metadata didn't save, metaData was removed: "+metaData);
+        } else if (!metaData.getId().equals(pNode.getId())) {
+            // the indexes are off... let's try to get them back in sync
+            int i = 0;
+            if (pNode.getId() > metaData.getId()) {
+                while (i < 100 && metaData.getId() != null && pNode.getId() != metaData.getId()) {
+                    // need to keep saving metaData until it's sequence has caught up
+                    dao.delete(metaData);
+                    // set ID back to null to make it save with a new incremented ID
+                    metaData.setId(null);
+                    dao.save(metaData);
+                    i++;
+                }
+            } else {
+                while (i < 100 && pNode.getId() != null && pNode.getId() != metaData.getId()) {
+                    // need to keep saving node until it's sequence has caught up
+                    dao.delete(pNode);
+                    // set ID back to null to make it save with a new incremented ID
+                    pNode.setId(null);
+                    dao.save(pNode);
+                    i++;
+                }
+            }
+            if (pNode.getId() == null || metaData.getId() == null || pNode.getId() != metaData.getId()) {
+                // ok we tried, it didn't work, so throw the exception
+                throw new RuntimeException("Node ID: " + pNode.getId() + " doesn't match Metadata ID: " + metaData.getId());
+            }
+        }
     }
 
     /**