diff --git a/aegir-release.make b/aegir-release.make
index b6999da54c86b247240ad4cd8541343bc16fba51..3b2bc0d3f24ac4d2a7dc7aa6b4ccd51d22712f32 100644
--- a/aegir-release.make
+++ b/aegir-release.make
@@ -5,6 +5,6 @@ api = 2
 projects[drupal][type] = "core"
 
 ; The release.sh script updates the version of hostmaster.
-projects[hostmaster][version] = "7.x-3.0-dev"
+projects[hostmaster][version] = "3.9-beta1"
 projects[hostmaster][type] = "profile"
 projects[hostmaster][variant] = "projects"
diff --git a/aegir.make b/aegir.make
deleted file mode 100644
index d1357cc84ef36ce883a105d1a5d6da21cc190ab1..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/aegir.make
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-core = 7.x
-api = 2
-
-projects[drupal][type] = "core"
-
-projects[hostmaster][type] = "profile"
-projects[hostmaster][download][type] = "git"
-projects[hostmaster][download][url] = "http://git.drupal.org/project/hostmaster.git"
-projects[hostmaster][download][branch] = "7.x-3.x"
-
diff --git a/aegir.make b/aegir.make
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f6e35b975feae015d21a03f4812e212d0079b010
--- /dev/null
+++ b/aegir.make
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+aegir-release.make
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 0d0010cbfa724ceedebb58c3df515e2e73325be0..f2437c782b5c74a2b84dc09ebba27c71b851eb3b 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+aegir3-provision (3.9~beta1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * Preparations for the 3.9 release
+  * Makefile tweaks to allow for minor releases to update Drupal core
+  * Many bugfixes and UI improvements, see http://aegir.readthedocs.org/en/3.x/release-notes/3.9
+
+
+ -- Herman van Rink <helmo@initfour.nl>  Thu, 15 Dec 2016 21:15:10 +0100
+
 aegir3-provision (3.8) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * Another stable release of the 3.x series.
diff --git a/provision.info b/provision.info
index 6f0191608fab3199092e85ac1c82308fcadba9a7..9c1a7b83d21eb02f19db05be689bc5b5778f80b0 100644
--- a/provision.info
+++ b/provision.info
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 name=Provision
 description="Aegir backend"
 
-version=7.x-3.x
+version=7.x-3.9-beta1
diff --git a/upgrade.sh.txt b/upgrade.sh.txt
index c325c3f3b40dc75d0c56296040827970ce4d285f..e0da9758fab60b62a65e9bd7df191b77e056a65b 100644
--- a/upgrade.sh.txt
+++ b/upgrade.sh.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 ########################################################################
 
 # Basic variables, change before running.
-AEGIR_VERSION="7.x-3.x"
+AEGIR_VERSION="7.x-3.9-beta1"
 NEW_DRUSH_VERSION="stable"  # e.g stable, unstable, ignore or a version number like 8.1.3
 
 # Extra variables, no changes needed for most use-cases.