Juju 2.3 beta1 is here!

[Ian Booth]

After many months of effort, we're pleased to announce the release of the first
beta for the upcoming Juju 2.3 release. This release has many long requested new
features, some of which are highlighted below.

Please note that because this is a beta release (the first one at that), there
may likely be bugs or functionality that will be polished over the next betas
prior to release. But we encourage everyone to provide feedback so that we may
address any issues.

Also note that some of the documentation for the new features is also in beta
and undergoing revision and completion over the next few weeks. In particular
the cross model relations documentation is still in development.

## New and Improved

### FAN networking in containers (initial support)

A new "container-networking-method" model config attribute is introduced with 3
possible values: "local", "fan", "provider".
* local = use local bridge lxdbr0
* provider = containers get their IP address from the cloud via DHCP
* fan = use FAN

The default is to use "provider" if supported. Otherwise, if FAN is configured
use that, else "local".
On AWS, FAN works out of the box. For other clouds, a new fan-config model
option needs to be used, eg

    juju model-config fan-config="<underlay1>=<overlay1> <underlay2>=<overlay2>

### Update application series

It's now possible to update the underlying OS series associated with an already
deployed application.

    juju update-series <application> <series>

will ensure that any new units deployed will now use the requested series.

    juju update-series <machine> <series>

will inform the charms already deployed to the machine that the OS series has
been changed and they should re-configure accordingly. This requires charm
support and for the underlying OS to be upgraded manually beforehand.

For more detail, see the documentation
https://jujucharms.com/docs/devel/howto-updateseries

### Cross model relations

This feature allows workloads to be deployed and related across models, and even
across controllers. Note that some charms such as postgresql, prometheus (and
others) need to be updated to be cross model compatible - this work is underway.

For more detail, see the beta documentation
https://jujucharms.com/docs/devel/models-cmr/

*Note: this cross model relations documentaion is also still in beta and is
incomplete.*

### LXD storage provider

Juju storage is now supported by the LXD local cloud. The available storage
options include:
- lxd (default, directory based)
- btrfs
- zfs

For more detail, see the documentation
https://jujucharms.com/docs/devel/charms-storage#lxd-(lxd)

### Persistent storage management

Storage can be detached and reattached from/to units without losing the data on
that storage. The supported scenarios include:
- explicit detach / attach while the units are still active
- retain storage when a unit or application is destroyed
- retain storage when a model is destroyed
- deploy a charm using previously detached storage

The default behaviour now is to retain storage, unless destroy has explicitly
been requested when running the command.

Storage which is retained can then be reattached to a different unit. Filesystem
storage can be imported into a different model, from where it can be attached to
units in that model, or used when deploying a new charm.

For more detail, see the documentation
https://jujucharms.com/docs/devel/charms-storage


## Fixes

For a list of all bugs fixed in this release, see
https://launchpad.net/juju/+milestone/2.3-beta1

Some important fixes include:

* can't bootstrap openstack if nova and neutron AZs differ
https://bugs.launchpad.net/juju/+bug/1689683
* cache vSphere images in datastore to avoid repeated downloads
https://bugs.launchpad.net/juju/+bug/1711019
* juju run-action can be run on multiple units
https://bugs.launchpad.net/juju/+bug/1667213


## How can I get it?

The best way to get your hands on this release of Juju is to install it as a
snap package (see https://snapcraft.io/ for more info on snaps).

         snap install juju --beta --classic

Other packages are available for a variety of platforms. Please see the online
documentation at https://jujucharms.com/docs/stable/reference-install. Those
subscribed to a snap channel should be automatically upgraded. If you’re using
the ppa/homebrew, you should see an upgrade available.


## Feedback Appreciated!

We encourage everyone to let us know how you're using Juju. Send us a
message on Twitter using #jujucharms, join us at #juju on freenode, and
subscribe to the mailing list at juju at lists.ubuntu.com.


## More information

To learn more about juju please visit https://jujucharms.com.