diff --git a/servers/slapd/backend.c b/servers/slapd/backend.c
index 97552309a478e8619064c4bb6296ed55d63d7736..396beff3f1ea237bace7ed76e18776f60c438d61 100644
--- a/servers/slapd/backend.c
+++ b/servers/slapd/backend.c
@@ -380,6 +380,9 @@ backend_db_init(
 	be->be_sizelimit = defsize;
 	be->be_timelimit = deftime;
 
+ 	/* assign a default depth limit for alias deref */
+	be->be_max_deref_depth = SLAPD_DEFAULT_MAXDEREFDEPTH; 
+
 	be->be_realm = global_realm != NULL
 		? ch_strdup( global_realm ) : NULL;
 
diff --git a/servers/slapd/config.c b/servers/slapd/config.c
index 4d7d999c617e774c500a045c74892396b073ddfc..91523367532cfbb40416b91dde2a22c627190091 100644
--- a/servers/slapd/config.c
+++ b/servers/slapd/config.c
@@ -133,9 +133,6 @@ read_config( const char *fname )
 			bi = NULL;
 			be = backend_db_init( cargv[1] );
 
- 		/* assign a default depth limit for alias deref */
-		be->be_max_deref_depth = SLAPD_DEFAULT_MAXDEREFDEPTH; 
-
 		/* get pid file name */
 		} else if ( strcasecmp( cargv[0], "pidfile" ) == 0 ) {
 			if ( cargc < 2 ) {