RHDS and error message ldap_modify: DSA is unwilling to perform, additional info: nsslapd-maxdescriptors: invalid value

Issue

A ldapmodify command fails against a Red Hat Directory Server (RHDS), to set nsslapd-maxdescriptors with a value above 1024, with the following error:

ldap_modify: DSA is unwilling to perform
ldap_modify: additional info: nsslapd-maxdescriptors: invalid value "4096", maximum file descriptors must range from 1 to 1024 (the current process limit).  Server will use a setting of 1024.

The message "DSA is unwilling to perform" is a quite generic error.

In this issue, the additional info of the error message does not indicate why there is an invalid value.