How to manage relations

See also: Relation (integration)

Contents:

Add a relation

The procedure differs slightly depending on whether the applications that you want to integrate are on the same model or rather on different models.

Add a same-model relation

To set up a relation between two applications on the same model, run the integrate command followed by the names of the applications. For example:

juju integrate mysql wordpress

This will satisfy WordPress’s database requirement where MySQL provides the appropriate schema and access credentials required for WordPress to run properly.

The code above however works only if there is no ambiguity in what relation the charm requires and what the related charm provides.

If the charms in question are able to establish multiple relation types, Juju may need to be supplied with more information as to how the charms should be joined. For example, if we try instead to relate the ‘mysql’ charm to the ‘mediawiki’ charm:

juju integrate mysql mediawiki 

the result is an error:

error: ambiguous relation: "mediawiki mysql" could refer to
  "mediawiki:db mysql:db"; "mediawiki:slave mysql:db"

The solution is to be explicit when referring to an endpoint, where the latter has a format of <application>:<application endpoint>. In this case, it is ‘db’ for both applications. However, it is not necessary to specify the MySQL endpoint because only the MediaWiki endpoint is ambiguous (according to the error message). Therefore, the command becomes:

juju integrate mysql mediawiki:db

The integration endpoints provided or required by a charm are listed in the result of the juju info command. They are also listed on the page for the charmed operator at Charmhub.

See more: juju integrate

To add a same-model relation, create a resource of the juju_integration type, give it a label (below, this), and in its body add:

  • a model attribute specifying the name of the model where you want to create the relation;
  • two application blocks, specifying the names of the applications that you want to integrate (and, if necessary, their endpoints_;
  • a lifecycle block with the replace_triggered_by argument specifying the list of application attributes (always the name, model, constraints, placement, and charm name) for which, if they are changed = destroyed and recreated, the relation must be recreated as well.

To avoid complications (e.g., race conditions) related to how Terraform works:

Make sure to always specify resources and data sources by reference rather than directly by name.

For example, for a resource / data source of type juju_model with label development and name mymodel, do not specify it as mymodel but rather as juju_model.development.name / data.juju_model.development.name.

resource "juju_integration" "this" {
  model = juju_model.development.name
  via   = "10.0.0.0/24,10.0.1.0/24"

  application {
    name     = juju_application.wordpress.name
    endpoint = "db"
  }

  application {
    name     = juju_application.percona-cluster.name
    endpoint = "server"
  }

  # Add any RequiresReplace schema attributes of
  # an application in this integration to ensure
  # it is recreated if one of the applications
  # is Destroyed and Recreated by terraform. E.G.:
  lifecycle {
    replace_triggered_by = [
      juju_application.wordpress.name,
      juju_application.wordpress.model,
      juju_application.wordpress.constraints,
      juju_application.wordpress.placement,
      juju_application.wordpress.charm.name,
      juju_application.percona-cluster.name,
      juju_application.percona-cluster.model,
      juju_application.percona-cluster.constraints,
      juju_application.percona-cluster.placement,
      juju_application.percona-cluster.charm.name,
    ]
  }
}

See more: juju_integration (resource), Terraform | lifecycle > replace_triggered_by

Add a cross-model relation

In a cross-model relation there is also an ‘offering’ model and a ‘consuming’ model. The admin of the ‘offering’ model ‘offers’ an application for consumption outside of the model and grants an external user access to it. The user on the ‘consuming’ model can then find an offer to use, consume the offer, and integrate an application on their model with the ‘offer’ via the same integrate command as in the same-model case (just that the offer must be specified in terms of its offer URL or its consume alias). This creates a local proxy for the offer in the consuming model, and the application is subsequently treated as any other application in the model.

See more: How to manage offers > Integrate with an offer

View all the current relations

To view the current relations in the model, run juju status --relations. The example below shows a peer relation and a regular relation:

[...]
Relation provider  Requirer       Interface  Type     Message
mysql:cluster      mysql:cluster  mysql-ha   peer     
mysql:db           mediawiki:db   mysql      regular

To view just a specific relation and the applications it integrates, run juju status --relations followed by the provider and the requirer application (and endpoint). For example, based on the output above, juju status --relations mysql mediawiki would output:

[...]
Relation provider  Requirer       Interface  Type     Message  
mysql:db           mediawiki:db   mysql      regular

See more: juju status --relations

The terraform juju client does not support this. Please use the juju client.

Remove a relation

Regardless of whether the relation is same-model or cross-model, to remove an relation, run the remove-relation command followed by the names of the two applications involved in the integration:

juju remove-relation <application-name> <application-name>

For example:

juju remove-relation mediawiki mysql

In cases where there is more than one relation between the two applications, specify the interface at least for one of the applications:

juju remove-relation mediawiki mysql:db

See more: juju remove-relation

To remove a relation, in your Terraform plan, remove its resource definition.

See more: juju_integration (resource)


Contributors: @aurelien-lourot , @danieleprocida, @evilnick , @hmlanigan, @nottrobin , @pedroleaoc, @pmatulis, @tmihoc

Is there another page with more information about relations? specifically, around gathering relation data from the cli (relation-get, relation-list, relation-ids)?

Typo here => star topology

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