What does Windows error code 8214 (ERROR_DS_CANT_ON_RDN) mean?

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: The requested operation cannot be performed directly on an object RDN attribute.

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ERROR_DS_CANT_ON_NON_LEAF	ERROR_DS_CANT_MOD_OBJ_CLASS

ERROR_DS_CANT_ON_RDN

ERROR_DS_CANT_ON_RDN (8214) is an Active Directory Domain Services error. The request attempted to change the Relative Distinguished Name (RDN) as if it were an ordinary attribute. In Active Directory, renaming or moving an object is a Modify DN operation rather than a normal attribute modification.

What to check

Confirm the object DN and the new parent or new RDN that the caller intended to use.
Use a supported rename or move operation instead of replacing the naming attribute with Set-ADObject or raw LDAP Modify.
Verify that the target parent permits the object class and that the new RDN is unique there.

Useful command

Move-ADObject -Identity "<ObjectDN>" -TargetPath "<TargetContainerDN>"

Microsoft: Move-ADObject · Microsoft: AD DS Modify DN operation · Microsoft: Directory Service system error codes

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