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Wes Sayeed
Asked: 2016-05-03 14:22:39 +0800 CST

Error Creating OU: Name is Already In Use

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I have an OU structure for computers that looks like this:

Workstations
  |--  Building
  |    |--  Floor, Department, or Approximate Location
...

I want to create a child OU called "3 North" in that building's OU, but I am getting the following error:

Windows cannot create the object 3 North because:
An attempt was made to add an object to the directory with a name that is already in use.

First of all, the OU name shouldn't matter; you can have multiple containers with the same name in AD as long they appear in different parts of the tree, but secondly, the only other "3 North" that exists is an email distribution list in an entirely different container.

Why is this error happening, and how can I get around it?

windows active-directory ldap organizational-unit

2 Answers

  1. I had a similar situation and was able to resolve the problem.

    Inside an OU called 'apple' I was trying to make another OU 'crisp' but could not ("An attempt was made to add an object to the directory with a name that is already in use"). I had no other OU by the name of 'crisp'.

    What I found was that I actually had a group (not an OU) named 'crisp' inside the OU named 'apple'. Once I moved the group named 'crisp' out of the OU named 'apple', I was then able to create the OU named 'crisp' inside the OU named 'apple'.

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  2. You might have the same name somewhere inside the domain. Perform a full search, Make sure you check your contacts as well.

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