diff --git a/docs/server/source/production-deployment-template/node-config-map-and-secrets.rst b/docs/server/source/production-deployment-template/node-config-map-and-secrets.rst
index 6e25c77b..1509091c 100644
--- a/docs/server/source/production-deployment-template/node-config-map-and-secrets.rst
+++ b/docs/server/source/production-deployment-template/node-config-map-and-secrets.rst
@@ -89,6 +89,36 @@ Note that ``ca.pem`` is just another name for ``ca.crt``
 (the certificate of your BigchainDB cluster's self-signed CA).
 
 
+bdb-certs.bdb-user
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+This is the user name that BigchainDB uses to authenticate itself to the
+backend MongoDB database.
+
+We need to specify the user name *as seen in the certificate* issued to
+the BigchainDB instance in order to authenticate correctly. Use
+the following ``openssl`` command to extract the user name from the
+certificate:
+  
+.. code:: bash
+
+   $ openssl x509 -in <path to the bigchaindb certificate> \
+     -inform PEM -subject -nameopt RFC2253
+         
+You should see an output line that resembles:
+  
+.. code:: bash
+  
+   subject= emailAddress=dev@bigchaindb.com,CN=test-bdb-ssl,OU=BigchainDB-Instance,O=BigchainDB GmbH,L=Berlin,ST=Berlin,C=DE
+
+The ``subject`` line states the complete user name we need to use for this
+field (``bdb-certs.bdb-user``), i.e.
+
+.. code:: bash
+
+   emailAddress=dev@bigchaindb.com,CN=test-bdb-ssl,OU=BigchainDB-Instance,O=BigchainDB GmbH,L=Berlin,ST=Berlin,C=DE
+
+
 Deploy Your config-map.yaml and secret.yaml
 -------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/k8s/bigchaindb/bigchaindb-dep.yaml b/k8s/bigchaindb/bigchaindb-dep.yaml
index 376c5c86..9aea8f7c 100644
--- a/k8s/bigchaindb/bigchaindb-dep.yaml
+++ b/k8s/bigchaindb/bigchaindb-dep.yaml
@@ -59,8 +59,6 @@ spec:
           value: /etc/bigchaindb/ssl/bdb-instance.pem
         - name: BIGCHAINDB_DATABASE_KEYFILE
           value: /etc/bigchaindb/ssl/bdb-instance.key
-        - name: BIGCHAINDB_DATABASE_KEYFILE_PASSPHRASE
-          value: /etc/bigchaindb/ssl/bdb-keyfile-passphrase
         - name: BIGCHAINDB_DATABASE_LOGIN
           value: /etc/bigchaindb/ssl/bdb-user
         # The following env var is not required for the bootstrap/first node
diff --git a/k8s/configuration/secret.yaml b/k8s/configuration/secret.yaml
index e42ac4c9..795e4756 100644
--- a/k8s/configuration/secret.yaml
+++ b/k8s/configuration/secret.yaml
@@ -82,8 +82,6 @@ data:
   bdb-instance.pem: "<b64 encoded certificate>"
   # Base64-encoded private key
   bdb-instance.key: "<b64 encoded private key>"
-  # Base64-encoded private key passphrase
-  bdb-keyfile-passphrase: "<b64 encoded private key passphrase>"
   # Base64-encoded instance authentication credentials
   bdb-user: "<b64 encoded user name>"
 ---