diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 9de9cea3..467f6f5b 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -5,9 +5,10 @@ branches:
     - '1.5'
     - '1.6'
     - '1.7'
+    - '1.8'
     - master
     # version tags, e.g. 1.7.1
-    - /^1\.[567]\.\d+$/
+    - /^1\.[5678]\.\d+$/
     # pre-releases, e.g. 1.8-pre1
     - /^1\.8-pre\d+$/
     # test branches, e.g. test-debian
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7ccde4bc..708eb092 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,11 +1,51 @@
 Changelog
 =========
 
-Notable changes to this project are documented in the current file. For more
-details about individual changes, see the Git log. You should read this before
-upgrading Mailu as some changes will include useful notes.
+Upgrade should run fine as long as you generate a new compose or stack
+configuration and upgrade your mailu.env.
+
+There are some changes to the configuration overrides. Override files are now mounted read-only into the containers. 
+The Dovecot and Postfix overrides are moved in their own sub-directory. 
+If there are local override files, they will need to be moved from overrides/ to overrides/dovecot and overrides/postfix/.
+See https://mailu.io/1.8/faq.html#how-can-i-override-settings for all the mappings.
+
+Please not that the shipped image for PostgreSQL database is deprecated.
+We advise to switch to an external database server.
 
 <!-- TOWNCRIER -->
+v1.8.0 - 2020-09-28
+--------------------
+
+- Features: Add support for backward-forwarding using SRS ([#328](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/328))
+- Features: Add options to support different architectures builds ([#985](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/985))
+- Features: Add support for Traefik v2 certificate dumping ([#1011](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1011))
+- Features: Resolve hosts to IPs if only HOST_* is set. If *_ADDRESS is set, leave it unresolved. ([#1113](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1113))
+- Features: - Use nginx as http endpoint on kubernetes to simplify ingress ([#1158](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1158))
+- Features: Advertise correct mail capabilities through the front-container, this also enables support for PIPELINING in mail-protocols and IMAP IDLE which is a (potential) performance gain. ([#1160](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1160))
+- Features: Change default password scheme to PBKDF2 ([#1194](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1194))
+- Features: Enable access log of admin service only for log levels of INFO and finer ([#1197](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1197))
+- Features: japanese loca is now available ([#1207](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1207))
+- Features: Allow to reject virus mails by setting ANTIVITUS_ACTION=reject ([#1259](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1259))
+- Features: Update roundcube to 1.4.0 and enable the new elastic skin ([#1267](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1267))
+- Features: The roundcube container does support mysql now (no setup integration yet) ([#1268](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1268))
+- Features: Added CardDAV-Plugin for webmail roundcube. ([#1298](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1298))
+- Features: Allow users to use server-sided full-text-search again by adding the dovecot fts-xapian plugin ([#1320](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1320))
+- Features: Relay a domain to a nonstandard SMTP port by adding ":<port_num>" to the remote hostname or IP address. ([#1357](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1357))
+- Features: Introduce option to disable dovecot full-text-search by an enviroment variable. ([#1538](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1538))
+- Features: Add support for AUTH LOGIN authentication mechanism for relaying email via smart hosts. ([#1635](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1635))
+- Bugfixes: Use pip package for radicale to fix failing builds caused by [alpine]upstream package rebuild against different python version ([#1255](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1255))
+- Bugfixes: Disable Health checks on swarm mode ([#1289](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1289))
+- Bugfixes: Show SPF records in accordance with RFC 7208: Previously we instructed admins to create SPF and TXT records, where only TXT records are correct now. !! Attention !! You need to manually remove the SPF-typed records and keep only TXT in your DNS. ([#1394](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1394))
+- Bugfixes: Cover relearning messages when moving bewteen Ham and Spam status ([#1438](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1438))
+- Bugfixes: Defining POSTMASTER through setup tool apply also to DMARC_RUA and DMARC_RUF settings ([#1463](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1463))
+- Bugfixes: Check postfix mailqueue permissions before start-up ([#1486](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1486))
+- Bugfixes: Fixes certbot renewal ([#1564](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1564))
+- Improved Documentation: Added documentation that describes how spam filtering works in Mailu. ([#1167](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1167))
+- Improved Documentation: Add documentation for the web administration interface. ([#1590](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1590))
+- Deprecations and Removals: Dovecot: Delete obsolete data volume ([#1221](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1221))
+- Misc:  ([#508](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/508), [#1098](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1098), [#1214](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1214), [#1308](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1308), [#1444](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1444), [#1512](https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/1512))
+
+
 v1.7.0 - 2019-08-22
 -------------------
 
diff --git a/core/admin/mailu/configuration.py b/core/admin/mailu/configuration.py
index 66b0b832..2cf6a478 100644
--- a/core/admin/mailu/configuration.py
+++ b/core/admin/mailu/configuration.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ DEFAULT_CONFIG = {
     'SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS': False,
     # Statistics management
     'INSTANCE_ID_PATH': '/data/instance',
-    'STATS_ENDPOINT': '0.{}.stats.mailu.io',
+    'STATS_ENDPOINT': '18.{}.stats.mailu.io',
     # Common configuration variables
     'SECRET_KEY': 'changeMe',
     'DOMAIN': 'mailu.io',
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 2bb0aaf5..24648e88 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -36,11 +36,12 @@ html_context = {
     'github_user': 'mailu',
     'github_repo': 'mailu',
     'github_version': version,
-    'stable_version': '1.7',
+    'stable_version': '1.8',
     'versions': [
         ('1.5', '/1.5/'),
         ('1.6', '/1.6/'),
         ('1.7', '/1.7/'),
+        ('1.8', '/1.8/'),
         ('master', '/master/')
     ],
     'conf_py_path': '/docs/'
diff --git a/docs/releases.rst b/docs/releases.rst
index 3d50c285..0613c91c 100644
--- a/docs/releases.rst
+++ b/docs/releases.rst
@@ -1,15 +1,45 @@
 Release notes
 =============
 
-Mailu 1.8 - tbd
+Mailu 1.8 - 2020-10-02
 ----------------------
 
+Release 1.8 has come a long way again. Due to corona the project slowed down to a crawl. Fortunately new contributors have joined the team what enabled us to still release Mailu 1.8 this year.
+For a list of all changes refer to CHANGELOG.md in the root folder of the Mailu github project. Please read the 'Override location changes' section. It contains important information for the people who use the overrides folder.
+
+New functionality
+`````````````````
+
+short summary of new features
+
+- placeholder1
+- placeholder2
+
+mention alpine is updated in .... containers.
+
+other interesting section
+`````````````````````````
+
+bla bla bla.
+more bla bla bla.
+
 Override location changes
 `````````````````````````
 
 If you have regenerated the Docker compose and environment files, there are some changes to the configuration overrides.
 Override files are now mounted read-only into the containers. The Dovecot and Postfix overrides are moved in their own sub-directory. If there are local override files, they will need to be moved from ``overrides/`` to ``overrides/dovecot`` and ``overrides/postfix/``.
 
+Upgrading
+`````````
+
+Upgrade should run fine as long as you generate a new compose or stack
+configuration and upgrade your mailu.env.
+
+Please not that the shipped image for PostgreSQL database is deprecated.
+The shipped image for PostgreSQL is not maintained anymore from release 1.8. 
+We recommend switching to an external database as soon as possible.
+
+
 Mailu 1.7 - 2019-08-22
 ----------------------
 
diff --git a/docs/setup.rst b/docs/setup.rst
index c150d29a..fa31c8f8 100644
--- a/docs/setup.rst
+++ b/docs/setup.rst
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Pick a Mailu version
 
 Mailu is shipped in multiple versions.
 
-- ``1.7`` features the most recent stable version for Mailu. This is the
+- ``1.8`` features the most recent stable version for Mailu. This is the
   recommended build for new setups, old setups should migrate when possible.
 
 - ``1.0``, ``1.1``, and other version branches feature old versions of Mailu
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1011.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1011.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index f7b6afd7..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1011.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Add support for Traefik v2 certificate dumping
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1098.misc b/towncrier/newsfragments/1098.misc
deleted file mode 100644
index d99aa24d..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1098.misc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Ignore newlines and comment-lines in postfix overrides - this means you can now make your override configfiles much more readable.
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1113.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1113.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index 156a89df..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1113.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Resolve hosts to IPs if only HOST_* is set. If *_ADDRESS is set, leave it unresolved.
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1158.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1158.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index 12f9c049..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1158.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-- Use nginx as http endpoint on kubernetes to simplify ingress
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1160.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1160.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index bc5231cc..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1160.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Advertise correct mail capabilities through the front-container, this also enables support for PIPELINING in mail-protocols and IMAP IDLE which is a (potential) performance gain.
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1167.doc b/towncrier/newsfragments/1167.doc
deleted file mode 100644
index 9ab81a24..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1167.doc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Added documentation that describes how spam filtering works in Mailu.
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1194.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1194.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index ee40311a..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1194.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Change default password scheme to PBKDF2
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1197.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1197.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index 0aae8a08..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1197.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Enable access log of admin service only for log levels of INFO and finer
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1207.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1207.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index 321635ea..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1207.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-japanese loca is now available
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1214.misc b/towncrier/newsfragments/1214.misc
deleted file mode 100644
index adda05c9..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1214.misc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Move rspamd, fetchmail and unbound services into core and optional
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1221.removal b/towncrier/newsfragments/1221.removal
deleted file mode 100644
index 495fb8df..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1221.removal
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Dovecot: Delete obsolete data volume
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1255.bugfix b/towncrier/newsfragments/1255.bugfix
deleted file mode 100644
index 606f2f86..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1255.bugfix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Use pip package for radicale to fix failing builds caused by [alpine]upstream package rebuild against different python version
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1259.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1259.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index e726a6a9..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1259.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Allow to reject virus mails by setting ANTIVITUS_ACTION=reject
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1267.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1267.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index e9fa8b3f..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1267.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Update roundcube to 1.4.0 and enable the new elastic skin
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1268.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1268.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index e4cf9a5a..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1268.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-The roundcube container does support mysql now (no setup integration yet)
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1289.bugfix b/towncrier/newsfragments/1289.bugfix
deleted file mode 100644
index 8dc41dea..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1289.bugfix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Disable Health checks on swarm mode
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1298.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1298.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index 48d66d36..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1298.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Added CardDAV-Plugin for webmail roundcube.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1308.misc b/towncrier/newsfragments/1308.misc
deleted file mode 100644
index 8c196ddf..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1308.misc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Use Redis 5.0 in kubernetes manifests
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1320.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1320.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index fc3fd5aa..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1320.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Allow users to use server-sided full-text-search again by adding the dovecot fts-xapian plugin
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1357.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1357.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index 56fa443f..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1357.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Relay a domain to a nonstandard SMTP port by adding ":<port_num>" to the remote hostname or IP address.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1394.bugfix b/towncrier/newsfragments/1394.bugfix
deleted file mode 100644
index 6f17afbb..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1394.bugfix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Show SPF records in accordance with RFC 7208: Previously we instructed admins to create SPF and TXT records, where only TXT records are correct now. !! Attention !! You need to manually remove the SPF-typed records and keep only TXT in your DNS.
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1438.bugfix b/towncrier/newsfragments/1438.bugfix
deleted file mode 100644
index 73796bf7..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1438.bugfix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Cover relearning messages when moving bewteen Ham and Spam status
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1444.misc b/towncrier/newsfragments/1444.misc
deleted file mode 100644
index 82b18215..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1444.misc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Harden security by making certain configuration files read-only. Moves Postfix and Dovecot overrides an independed sub-directories.
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1463.bugfix b/towncrier/newsfragments/1463.bugfix
deleted file mode 100644
index 37423bfa..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1463.bugfix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Defining POSTMASTER through setup tool apply also to DMARC_RUA and DMARC_RUF settings
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1486.bugfix b/towncrier/newsfragments/1486.bugfix
deleted file mode 100644
index 3053455d..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1486.bugfix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Check postfix mailqueue permissions before start-up 
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1512.misc b/towncrier/newsfragments/1512.misc
deleted file mode 100644
index a886a8c0..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1512.misc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Use Radicale 3.x for webdav service
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1538.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1538.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index cdefe766..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1538.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Introduce option to disable dovecot full-text-search by an enviroment variable. 
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1564.bugfix b/towncrier/newsfragments/1564.bugfix
deleted file mode 100644
index 5c189b80..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1564.bugfix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Fixes certbot renewal
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1590.doc b/towncrier/newsfragments/1590.doc
deleted file mode 100644
index ba4c8b9a..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1590.doc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Add documentation for the web administration interface.
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/1635.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/1635.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index 06d78d6c..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/1635.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Add support for AUTH LOGIN authentication mechanism for relaying email via smart hosts.
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/328.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/328.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index b73b478e..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/328.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Add support for backward-forwarding using SRS
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/508.misc b/towncrier/newsfragments/508.misc
deleted file mode 100644
index bf8ab534..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/508.misc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Enable sponsorship
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/985.feature b/towncrier/newsfragments/985.feature
deleted file mode 100644
index 99caa7e2..00000000
--- a/towncrier/newsfragments/985.feature
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Add options to support different architectures builds