diff --git a/otc/observability.t09.de/stacks/observability-client/vm-client-stack/manifests/simple-user-secret.yaml b/otc/observability.t09.de/stacks/observability-client/vm-client-stack/manifests/simple-user-secret.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index f13b0b6..0000000
--- a/otc/observability.t09.de/stacks/observability-client/vm-client-stack/manifests/simple-user-secret.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-apiVersion: v1
-kind: Secret
-metadata:
-  name: simple-user-secret
-  namespace: observability
-type: Opaque
-stringData:
-  username: simple-user
-  password: simple-password
diff --git a/otc/observability.t09.de/stacks/observability/victoria-k8s-stack/manifests/vmauth.yaml b/otc/observability.t09.de/stacks/observability/victoria-k8s-stack/manifests/vmauth.yaml
index 2ea5d76..227785d 100644
--- a/otc/observability.t09.de/stacks/observability/victoria-k8s-stack/manifests/vmauth.yaml
+++ b/otc/observability.t09.de/stacks/observability/victoria-k8s-stack/manifests/vmauth.yaml
@@ -5,7 +5,9 @@ metadata:
   namespace: observability
 spec:
   username: simple-user
-  password: simple-password
+  passwordRef:
+    key: password
+    name: simple-user-secret
   targetRefs:
     - static:
         url: http://vmsingle-o12y:8429