diff --git a/ldap/servers/plugins/distrib/distrib.c b/ldap/servers/plugins/distrib/distrib.c
index 7cf1a88..69c4edb 100644
--- a/ldap/servers/plugins/distrib/distrib.c
+++ b/ldap/servers/plugins/distrib/distrib.c
@@ -57,9 +57,7 @@ int alpha_distribution(Slapi_PBlock *pb, Slapi_DN * target_dn,
 {
 	unsigned long op_type;
 	Slapi_Operation *op;
-	char *rdn_type;
-    char *rdn_value;
-	Slapi_RDN *rdn = NULL;
+	const char *ndn;
 	char c;
 
 	/* first check the operation type
@@ -77,12 +75,9 @@ int alpha_distribution(Slapi_PBlock *pb, Slapi_DN * target_dn,
 	 * go in backend 0
 	 */
 
-	/* get the first char of first value of rdn */
-	rdn = slapi_rdn_new();
-	slapi_sdn_get_rdn(target_dn, rdn);
-	slapi_rdn_get_first(rdn, &rdn_type, &rdn_value);
-	c = rdn_value[0];
-	slapi_rdn_free(&rdn);
+	/* get the first char of first value of normalized dn */
+	ndn = slapi_sdn_get_ndn(target_dn);
+	c = ndn[0];
 	
 	if (!(((c >= 'a') && (c <= 'z')) ||
 		 ((c >= 'A') && (c <= 'Z')) ))
@@ -131,6 +126,9 @@ int hash_distribution(Slapi_PBlock *pb, Slapi_DN * target_dn,
 	slapi_sdn_get_rdn(target_dn, rdn);
 	slapi_rdn_get_first(rdn, &rdn_type, &rdn_value);
 
+	/* ignore case */
+	slapi_dn_ignore_case(rdn_value);
+
 	/* compute the hash value */
 	hash_value = 0;
 	while (*rdn_value)