A method for online automatic relocation of LDAP entries and subtrees in a distributed directory environment. The online relocation method is for homogeneous LDAP directory partition servers where source and target partition servers have the same schema rules and definitions. When the method is to be applied in a directory environment where servers have different set of schema, then a "rules file" or a "policies file" that contains mapping of schema attribute-value pairs and objectclasses of a source directory server with the schema attribute-value pairs and objectclasses of a destination directory server should be supplied to the relocation tool.