Abstract: Techniques are described for deploying a virtualized computing environment configured in a user-specific configuration, the virtualized network function comprising a plurality of virtual machines. A solution definition file (SDF) identifies a configuration for the deployment. The SDF replaces each secret needed for the deployment with an identifier for the secret. A schema defines a format for each identifier for each secret included in the SDF and a format of the secrets. The secrets and corresponding identifiers are stored in a secure storage. The identifiers are sent to the deployed virtual machines, the identifiers being usable by the virtual machines to obtain the secrets from the secure storage.