> Manage domains > Prepare to run a domain

Prepare to run a domain

Perform these steps to prepare your Kubernetes cluster to run a WebLogic domain:

Create the domain namespace or namespaces. One or more domains can share a namespace. A single instance of the operator can manage multiple namespaces.
```
$ kubectl create namespace domain-namespace-1
```
Replace domain-namespace-1 with name you want to use. The name must follow standard Kubernetes naming conventions, that is, lowercase, numbers, and hyphens.
Create a Kubernetes Secret containing the Administration Server boot credentials. You can do this manually or by using the provided sample. To create the secret manually, use this command:
```
$ kubectl -n domain-namespace-1 \
        create secret generic domain1-weblogic-credentials \
        --from-literal=username=<the user name> \
        --from-literal=password=<the actual password>
```
- Replace domain-namespace-1 with the namespace that the domain will be in.
- Replace domain1-weblogic-credentials with the name of the secret. It is a recommended best practice to name the secret using the domain’s domainUID followed by the literal string -weblogic-credentials where domainUID is a unique identifier for the domain. Many of the samples follow this practice and use a domainUID of domain1 or sample-domain1.
- In the third line, enter the user name for the administrative user.
- In the fourth line, enter the password.
Optionally, create a PV & PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) which can hold the domain home, logs, and application binaries. Even if you put your domain in an image, you may want to put the logs on a persistent volume so that they are available after the pods terminate. This may be instead of, or as well as, other approaches like streaming logs into Elasticsearch.
Optionally, configure load balancer to manage access to any WebLogic clusters.