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Adding a model

A controller can host multiple models to accommodate different workloads or use cases. When a controller is created, it creates two initial models called 'controller' and 'default', but more models can be added with the add-model command. See Creating a controller for details.

It is important to understand that credentials used with Juju are always associated with a model. When creating a model, therefore, a credential is either specified explicitly or a default is used. Read the Credentials page for background information.

When a model is added the associated credential is validated with the backing cloud. As long as this check passes the model can be created and any of its subsequent machines will be created using those credentials. Care is therefore advised if the list of credentials to choose from contains multiple credentials (accounts) for the same cloud type.

The model creator, by default, is granted 'admin' model access by default. This includes the two initial models created at controller-creation time. This assists in connecting to machines within the model with juju ssh (see SSH keys and models). An exception to this is when the creator explicitly designates another user as 'owner'. In this case, the creator does not get 'admin' model access.

See section Managing models in a multi-user context for information on that subject.

Examples

Add a model named 'lxd-staging' to the current controller:

juju add-model lxd-staging

It is possible to add a model to a controller different to the current one. To add a model named 'gce-test' for the non-current 'gce' controller:

juju add-model gce-test -c gce 

Add a model named 'rackspace-prod' to the current controller, specifying an existing credential name of 'jon':

juju add-model rackspace-prod --credential jon

Here we're creating model 'han' in a multi-user context. We assign Juju user 'don' as model owner in addition to specifying credential 'ren':

juju add-model han --owner don --credential ren

By default, Juju will automatically change to the newly created model. Subsequent commands, unless the -m option is used to select a specific model, will operate on this model. This can be confirmed by running the switch command with no arguments. So, for example, after the above command, running:

juju switch

will return output like this:

rackspace:admin/rackspace-prod

In some cases (e.g. when scripting), this behaviour may be undesirable. In this case, you can add --no-switch option to keep the current model selected.