[Guide] Steem Mining for FREE using Microsoft Azure

There are various posts about how to mine with various cloud services, but I did not see one explaining how to mine for FREE using a Free Trial Azure account.

I previously used this service to mine Quark and Doge way back when I first started mining Cryptocurrency.  The good thing about Azure is you can create an account mine the entire duration of the trial period and then once the trial is over or consumed, create a new account and start all over.

This is my first attempt at writing a Guide and I will do my best to explain how I setup my trial account using information from various posts and through trial and error.   For those with more experience with VM and cloud services, please comment if you know of more efficient ways to maximize the trial.  This is just to get newbies like me started.

Heads up before you begin - You will need a credit card (used to verify your identity) - you wont be charged or auto-upgraded to a paying account at the end of the trial

First, you will need to create a Free Azure Trial account at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/ (I generally create new email accounts for each new Azure account)

Once you create your account and log in, you will be taken to your dashboard

Select Virtual Machines on the left and click +Add on the window that comes up

In Filter, Type Ubuntu and select Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Click Create and fill in the Basic Information

Once you click Enter, it will bring you to the 2nd step to select the Server configuration.  Since the trial is limited to $200 USD opted to setup 2 servers for a total of 6 cores (The A3 Basic and A2 Basic package)

By default, the options provided were over my trial budget.  Just click <> and scroll to the bottom

>

The A3 Basic and A2 Basic configs should nearly maximize your entire trial budget.  Please note I setup two seperate Virtual Machines (1 for the A3 Basic config and 1 for the A2 Basic config)

Click OK all the way through and you should be taken back to your Dashboard where your Virtual Machine will be deployed

For the rest of the setup I followed the guides from @eliteturbo and @jooni22 below

https://steemit.com/steemhelp/@eliteturbo/mining-steem-on-aws-free-tier

https://steemit.com/mining/@jooni22/how-to-free-miming-steem-on-google-cloud-for-beginner

I used Putty to SSH into my newly created Virtual Machines to setup and configure my miners.

Commands to Run (edited and consolidated some steps from both articles above to make it easier for newbie's like me)

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install git cmake g++ python-dev autotools-dev libicu-dev build-essential libbz2-dev libboost-all-dev libssl-dev libncurses5-dev doxygen libreadline-dev dh-autoreconf

sudo fallocate -l 4G /swapfile

sudo chmod 600 /swapfile

sudo mkswap /swapfile

sudo swapon /swapfile

wget -O boost_1_60_0.tar.gz http://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.60.0/boost_1_60_0.tar.gz/download

tar xzvf boost_1_60_0.tar.gz

cd boost_1_60_0

./bootstrap.sh --prefix=/usr/local

sudo ./b2 install

cd

git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/secp256k1

cd secp256k1

./autogen.sh

./configure

make

./tests

cd

git clone https://github.com/steemit/steem

cd steem

git submodule update --init --recursive

cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DENABLE_CONTENT_PATCHING=OFF -DLOW_MEMORY_NODE=ON

make

cd programs/steemd

./steemd --rpc-endpoint --seed-node="seed.steemed.net:2001" --seed-node="52.74.152.79:2001"

At this point I opened a new terminal window with Putty to configure my wallet.  Once logged in on the new terminal window 

cd steem/programs/cli_wallet

./cli_wallet

set_password "YOUR PASSWORD"

unlock "YOUR PASSWORD"

suggest_brain_key

{
"brain_priv_key": "FULK DEBUG EARTH IMAGINE BABBLE POPIFY PREFEED EMBIND FOREPAW KAHILI...",
"wif_priv_key": "5JsPmgU1dfKu8SHWAWkBKw1XGz97Kwz4DLwgm2bSz99qtFqTAkp",
"pub_key": "STM73jgNRFLTKSTaGWv8QfXzSopUZBsQGmrECWPvpnemjyAcBfzAc"
}

• Never share the "wif_private_key"
• You will need your wif private key for the config.ini file in a minute.
• this is a good time to import YOUR key in your cli_wallet terminal window like this:

import_key 5JsPmgU1dfKu8SHWAWkBKw1XGz97Kwz4DLwgm2bSz99qtFqTAkp

Exit cli_wallet by pressing ctrl+c and close the 2nd terminal window

 

This is a good time to pick your account/miner name. Remember, account names must be all lower case, less than 15 characters, and start with a letter. For instance, lets say you pick account name george1234 as your account name. Check if the account already exists by going to:

https://steemit.com/@george1234

If you get a page that says "Unknown Account" - then you are in luck and the account name is available to claim 

Go back to your primary terminal window where hopefully it is finished syncing.  Press ctrl+c and type:

nano steem/programs/steemd/witness_node_data_dir/config.ini - to start editing your config.ini file 

Change only the following information:

# P2P nodes to connect to on startup (may specify multiple times)
seed-node = seed.steemed.net:2001    
seed-node = seed.steemed.com:2001
seed-node = 52.74.152.79:2001
seed-node = 45.32.186.90:1779
seed-node = 45.32.186.90:1781
seed-node = 192.99.4.226:2001
seed-node = 46.252.27.1:1337
seed-node = 81.89.101.133:2001
seed-node = 52.4.250.181:39705
seed-node = 85.214.65.220:2001

# name of witness controlled by this node (e.g. initwitness )
witness = "YOUR STEEMIT ACCOUNT from above"

# name of miner and its private key (e.g. ["account","WIF PRIVATE KEY"] )
miner = ["YOUR STEEMIT ACCOUNT","wif_priv_key created previously"]

# Number of threads to use for proof of work mining
mining-threads = 4  

Once done editing, Press ctrl+o and then press Enter to save

Type

./steemd --rpc-endpoint

It should start syncing and eventually when it is done, It will begin mining

Please comment if there is anything you recommend changing or updating.