Using a transactional activation, Magnolia creates a new version in the mgnl-version workspace on the author and a backup of the activated node on the public.

Those two workspaces are in the default magnolia repository. If the activation is triggered on an asset (in the dam) and the dam workspace is located inside another repository, then Magnolia won't be able to clone this node.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Configure one author and public instance, out of the box config is ok.
2. Add the transactional activation module:

   <dependency>
          <groupId>info.magnolia</groupId>
          <artifactId>magnolia-module-exchange-transactional</artifactId>
      </dependency>

3. Make sure activation works.
4. Now move the dam workspace to a different repo (see attachment)
5.a. Try the activation again using command versioned:activate => Author will failed cause mgnl-version and dam are not in the same repo
5.b. Try the activation again using command default:activate => Public will failed cause mgl-system and dam are not in the same repo

Note: This issue can be reproduced with any kind of ws

Why it does not work

To retrieve the root node of mgnl-system, CopyUtil.copyToSystem needs a hierarchyManager. This hm is given by the method MgnlContext.getSystemContext().getHierarchyManager(SYSTEM_REPO) (ReceiveFilter l.881) which points to the one in the default magnolia repo.