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Steps to deploy azure virtual machine to join Oracles-PoA network

1. Create azure account

If you already have Microsoft Azure account, you should login to it and then skip this section.
To signup to Microsoft Azure follow this link and click "Create a new Microsoft account". Follow the steps of the registration process. You will need to provide and verify your email address and your credit card information.
After registration is complete, do not sign out.

2. Generate SSH keys

SSH keys is a pair of cryptographic keys that will be used to access your virtual machine. Each pair consists of a public key and a private key. Both of them will be stored on your current laptop/PC in separate files. Public key will then be copied to the virtual machine and used to verify your identity when you try to access it. As a consequence, the first connection can be made only from your current laptop/PC. While public key may be shared with anybody, you should never share your private key. Later, if need be, you'll be able to create additional key pairs on your other devices and access the virtual machine from them as well.

Mac OS X

Open "Finder", choose Utilities from the "Go" menu.
Find the "Terminal.app" in the "Utilities" window.
Double-click to open the "Terminal.app".
Enter the following command in the terminal window and hit ENTER

ssh-keygen -t rsa

You'll be prompted to indicate where to store the keys. Accept the default location by hitting ENTER.
Next you'll be prompted for a passphrase (password). You can just hit ENTER to use this keypair without a passphrase, however, it is recommended that you provide a strong passphrase.
This completes the SSH keys generation procedure and you should see the confirmation in the terminal window. Do not close Terminal just yet.

Windows PC

Download PuTTY from its official web page. Under "Package files" select 32-bit or 64-bit version depending on your laptop/PC processor type and operating system edition. If unsure, download 32-bit version. After download is complete, double-click on the msi file and follow the installation steps.
Open the PuTTYgen program.
For "Type of key to generate", select RSA, for "Number of bits in a generated key" leave default value 2048.
Click the "Generate" button.
You'll need to randomly move your mouse in the area below the progress bar. These movements will be used to generate random numbers for the cryptographic functions. Continue until the progress bar is full.
Type a passphrase (password) into the "Key passphrase" and "Confirm passphrase" fields. You can use this keypair without a passphrase, however, it is recommended that you provide a strong passphrase.
Click the "Save private key" button, select the folder you want to save this file to, enter filename, e.g. "private.ppk" and save the fule. Please note, that this file should be saved to a folder only you can access.
Click the "Save public key" button, select the folder you want to save this file to, enter filename, e.g. "public.ppk" and save the file.
Do not close PuTTY just yet.

3. Virtual machine setup.

This is the final step, on which you will create azure virtual machine from a template by filling in a number of fields with data obtained on previous steps. After virtual machine deployment is complete, it will automatically join the Oracles-PoA network and all corresponding activities (voting, payout) will become available to you.

Hold cmd ⌘ (on Mac OS X) or CTRL (on Windows PC) and click on the "Deploy to Azure" button below. This will open a separate browser tab, lead you to azure portal and launch "Custom deployment" wizard (alternatively, you can right-click on the button and select "Open in New Tab")
You should see a window similar to this, preselected fields (subscription, location) may be different from yours.
Double-check address bar that you are connected to https://portal.azure.com and that secure connection sign is present (e.g. 🔒, exact representation may differ by browser).
Subscription: Select the azure subsciption you want to link virtual machine to.
Resource group: Choose "Create new" Resource group and input a name for the resource group. This name will be displayed on your azure dashboard, it will not be used in the Oracles-PoA network, so choose a name that would make it clear to you what this resource group represents. However, Azure imposes certain restrictions on a resource group name: it can only include upper case and lower case latin letters, numbers (e.g. a, B, 5), periods, underscores, hyphens and parenthesis, cannot contain spaces ( ) and cannot end in a period. An example of a correct name is oracles-poa. After you've typed in the name, make sure a green check mark ✓ appears on the right.
Location: Select a location to where the virtual machine will be deployed.
Node Full Name: Enter your real full name. This will be displayed in the Oracles-PoA network usage info page and visible to other users of the network.
Node Admin Email: Enter your email address.
Mining Address: Copy address of your mining key obtained previously. Address starts with 0x, the rest consists of numbers 0-9 and letters a-f, giving 42 characters in total length, an example of a valid address is 0x09a548bdbafae302c5dd7f47b43d751baf20b77d.
Mining Keyfile: Open key file of your mining key obtained previously in a text editor (e.g. "TextEdit.app" on Mac OS X or Notepad on Windows). The content of this file should consist of words in double-quotes " separated from other words or numbers by semicolons :, nested into curly brackets {...}. Select this file's entire content, including all curly brackets, copy it and paste into this field. When you paste it, the actual content will not be displayed, because it is treated as a secured password, instead you'll see black dots.

At this step, you should see a window similar to this (values will be different in your case)

Mining Keypass: Copy password from your mining key obtained previously. Password is an 8 characters long sequence of letters and numbers. After pasting, the content of the field will be hidden, instead you'll see black dots.
Admin username: Think up a login account name on your virtual machine. It may contain only lower case latin letters and numbers, also it should start with a letter. As an example, you can use a standard combination first letter of your given name + your surname (e.g. John Doe -> jdoe), or choose a neutral azureuser. This name will not be used in the Oracles-PoA network, and is only used to identify you when connecting to the virtual machine.
Ssh Public Key:

On Mac OS X: switch to the "Terminal" application opened on the previous step and paste the following command into the terminal, then hit ENTER

pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

This command will copy your public key to your clipboard. Then switch back to your browser and paste it into this field. Note that you should not copy anything in-between, otherwise your clipboard will be overwritten and you'll have to redo this step. After pasting check that the key starts with ssh-rsa.

On Windows: Switch back to PuTTY and right-click in the text field labeled "Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file", choose "Select All", then right-click again in the same text field and choose "Copy". Paste selected text into this field. After pasting check that the key starts with ssh-rsa.

Netstats Server: This is the address of a server displaying usage info about the network. This address should have been provided to you with initial keys.
Netstats Secret: This is a secret code used to connect to the netstats server above. This code should have been provided to you as well.
Carefully read "Terms and conditions" section provided by Azure and click "I agree" checkbox below if you do agree.
Check "Pin to dashboard" checkbox at the bottom of the page. This will put virtual machine on your azure dashboard, making it easy to access.

Second half of the fields should look similar to this (values will be different in your case)

Click "Purchase". In case of errors please double check that you have completed the steps above and all fields are filled with correct values. If the error persists you can file a bug report here. Please provide as detailed a description as possible, one or several screenshots, so that values in all fields will be visible to us. Also provide a screenshot with the error message.
After that, you will be taken to your azure dashboard. Look for a box similar to this

representing deployment process of the resource group. Do not close this windows and wait till the process is complete and you'll be automatically forwarded to a newly-created resource group page. At this moment you've successfully joined the Oracles-PoA network!
You can close the window now. Later, when you login to your azure portal, you can find this box on your dashboard to access the resource group.

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