That's because ou=SOMETHING,o=SOMETHING and ou=something,o=something are equivalent DNs. In general, that's just plain a bad idea to design a tree where you have dn's that are identical other than case (assuming it's even possible), for the exact case you are running into. But... my guess would be that it depends on the case sensitivity of the attributes that make up the dn - i.e. o and ou are case insensative attributes, so a dn made up of those components would certainly be completely case insensitive. In this particular example, since ou is case insensative, ou=SOMETHING and ou=something under the same parent are actually the same RDN, so you really are trying to create a duplicate. If ou (in this example) were case sensative, these *might* be validly different DNs (I've never tried such a thing), but this still just seems like a really bad idea. Note also that if case were taken into account (on both o and ou in your example), these entries would be in two completely different trees (i.e. o=something and o=SOMETHING - you'd have to define both an o=something and o=SOMETHING suffix, for example, and searches on o=something as the base dn and o=SOMETHING would return different results). Why in the world do you need such a thing (or at least think you need such a thing :) )? The electronic mail message you have received and any files transmitted with it are confidential and solely for the intended addressee(s) attention. Do not divulge, copy, forward, or use the contents, attachments, or information without permission of Fannie Mae. Information contained in this message is provided solely for the purpose stated in the message or its attachment(s) and must not be disclosed to any third party or used for any other purpose without consent of Fannie Mae. If you have received this message and/or any files transmitted with it in error, please delete them from your system, destroy any hard copies of them, and contact the sender. ________________________________ From: openldap-software-bounces+jeff_clowser=fanniemae.com(a)openldap.org [mailto:openldap-software-bounces+jeff_clowser=fanniemae.com@openldap.or g] On Behalf Of jorge sanchez Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 10:25 AM To: openldap-software(a)openldap.org Subject: case sensitive dn Hi all, just a short question: Is that possible to have case sensitive DN's for example dn: ou=something,o=something and dn: ou=SOMETHING,o=SOMETHING I am getting error when trying to add dn "ou=SOMETHING,o=SOMETHING" to LDAP when there is already an dn "ou=something,o=something" present. Thanks, Jorge