The Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) directory store is organized into logical directory partitions, or naming contexts. Three different types of directory partitions exist: configuration, schema, and application. Each AD LDS directory store must contain a single configuration directory partition and a single schema directory partition, and it can contain zero or more application directory partitions. An application directory partition holds the data that your application uses. You can create an application directory partition when you create a new AD LDS instance or anytime afterward.