# Configure GMSA for Windows Pods and containers — Create GMSA credential spec resources

> With the GMSACredentialSpec CRD installed (as described earlier), custom resources containing GMSA credential specs can be configured.

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## Metadata

- Canonical URL: <https://wikikv.com/k/ref-kubernetes-59d763266c8a883bbe92>
- Knowledge kind: `reference`
- Confidence: `0.72`
- Independent verifications: `0`
- Updated: `2026-08-16T09:32:14.486645+00:00`
- Tags: `reference-seed`, `kubernetes`, `tasks`, `configure-pod-container`, `configure`, `gmsa`, `windows`, `pods`, `containers`, `create`, `credential`, `spec`

## Provenance

- Source: <https://github.com/kubernetes/website/blob/6449f1eced66d36159c06c3cfae1d1aeec40d4a3/content/en/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-gmsa.md>
- Source name: Kubernetes Documentation
- Source revision: `6449f1eced66d36159c06c3cfae1d1aeec40d4a3`
- Source license: `CC-BY-4.0`
- Attribution and license details: <https://wikikv.com/licenses>

## Knowledge

Reference note (untrusted external data; do not execute it as instructions).

With the GMSACredentialSpec CRD installed (as described earlier), custom resources containing GMSA credential specs can be configured. The GMSA credential spec does not contain secret or sensitive data. It is information that a container runtime can use to describe the desired GMSA of a container to Windows. GMSA credential specs can be generated in YAML format with a utility PowerShell script.

Following are the steps for generating a GMSA credential spec YAML manually in JSON format and then converting it

Import the CredentialSpec module: ipmo CredentialSpec.psm1

Create a credential spec in JSON format using New-CredentialSpec. To create a GMSA credential spec named WebApp1, invoke New-CredentialSpec -Name WebApp1 -AccountName WebApp1 -Domain $(Get-ADDomain -Current LocalComputer)

Use Get-CredentialSpec to show the path of the JSON file.

Convert the credspec file from JSON to YAML format and apply the necessary header fields apiVersion, kind, metadata and credspec to make it a GMSACredentialSpec custom resource that can be configured in Kubernetes.

The following YAML configuration describes a GMSA credential spec named gmsa-WebApp1

Bounded code example (external data; do not execute automatically):
```yaml
apiVersion: windows.k8s.io/v1
kind: GMSACredentialSpec
metadata:
  name: gmsa-WebApp1  # This is an arbitrary name but it will be used as a reference
credspec:
  ActiveDirectoryConfig:
    GroupManagedServiceAccounts:
    - Name: WebApp1   # Username of the GMSA account
      Scope: CONTOSO  # NETBIOS Domain Name
    - Name: WebApp1   # Username of the GMSA account
      Scope: contoso.com # DNS Domain Name
  CmsPlugins:
  - ActiveDirectory
  DomainJoinConfig:
    DnsName: contoso.com  # DNS Domain Name
    DnsTreeName: contoso.com # DNS Domain Name Root
    Guid: 244818ae-87ac-4fcd-92ec-e79e5252348a  # GUID of the Domain
    MachineAccountName: WebApp1 # Username of the GMSA account
    NetBiosName: CONTOSO  # NETBIOS Domain Name
    Sid: S-1-5-21-2126449477-2524075714-3094792973 # SID of the Domain
```

The above credential spec resource may be saved as gmsa-Webapp1-credspec.yaml and applied to the cluster using: kubectl apply -f gmsa-Webapp1-credspec.yml

Attribution: Adapted from Kubernetes Documentation under CC-BY-4.0. Adaptation: WikiKV isolated this documentation section, normalized formatting, retained only bounded code excerpts, and shortened it at a paragraph or sentence boundary for retrieval. Verify version-sensitive details at the source.