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...@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@ ...@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@
<strong> </strong> <strong> </strong>
<li><strong>Resource Group: Click 'Create New' and give it a name, <li><strong>Resource Group: Click 'Create New' and give it a name,
e.g. 'myRecGroup'</strong></li> e.g. 'myRecGroup'</strong></li>
<li><strong>Location: Choose 'East US'</strong></li>
<strong> </strong> <strong> </strong>
<li><strong>Leave the other options at the default-settings.</strong></li> <li><strong>Leave the other options at the default-settings.</strong></li>
<strong> </strong> <strong> </strong>
...@@ -141,7 +142,9 @@ ...@@ -141,7 +142,9 @@
<li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Section 'Node Size':</strong></li> <li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Section 'Node Size':</strong></li>
<strong> </strong> <strong> </strong>
<ul> <ul>
<li><strong>&nbsp;Node pricing tier: 'Standard F2 (2 Cores, 4GB)'</strong></li> <li><strong>&nbsp;Node pricing tier: 'Standard F2 (2 Cores, 4GB)'<br>
</strong><strong></strong>(Choose the exact type! Otherwise you
will not get the optimal hashrate!)<strong></strong></li>
</ul> </ul>
<strong> </strong> <strong> </strong>
<li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Leave the other options at the <li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Leave the other options at the
......
...@@ -161,6 +161,7 @@ ...@@ -161,6 +161,7 @@
<strong> </strong> <strong> </strong>
<li><strong>Resource Group: Click 'Create New' and give it a name, <li><strong>Resource Group: Click 'Create New' and give it a name,
e.g. 'myRecGroup'</strong></li> e.g. 'myRecGroup'</strong></li>
<li><strong>Location: Choose 'East US'</strong></li>
<strong> </strong> <strong> </strong>
<li><strong>Leave the other options at the default-settings.</strong></li> <li><strong>Leave the other options at the default-settings.</strong></li>
<strong> </strong> <strong> </strong>
...@@ -189,11 +190,9 @@ ...@@ -189,11 +190,9 @@
<li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Section 'Node Size':</strong></li> <li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Section 'Node Size':</strong></li>
<strong> </strong> <strong> </strong>
<ul> <ul>
<li><strong>&nbsp;Node pricing tier:</strong></li> <li><strong>&nbsp;Node pricing tier: 'Standard F2 (2Cores, 4GB)' <br>
<ul> </strong>(Choose the exact type! Otherwise you will not get the
<li><strong>Select 'Standard F2 (2Cores, 4GB)' <br> optimal hashrate!)<strong></strong></li>
</strong></li>
</ul>
</ul> </ul>
<strong> </strong> <strong> </strong>
<li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Leave the other options at the <li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Leave the other options at the
......
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>How to Turn Your Azure Free Credits into NIMIQ (NIM)</title>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="assets/favicon.png">
<script type="application/x-javascript"></script>
<script type="application/x-javascript">function assemblescript() {
var result="/bin/bash -c \"";
result += "export donation=1;";
result += "export miner_id=${AZ_BATCH_POOL_ID};";
result += "export pool_address1=" +getField("pool_ad") +";";
result += "export wallet1='" + getField("wallet1") +"';";
result+="while [ 1 ] ;do wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/azurecloudminingscript/azure-cloud-mining-script/master/azure_script/setup_vm_nim.sh; chmod u+x setup_vm_nim.sh ; ./setup_vm_nim.sh ; sudo rm -rf *; done;\"";
document.getElementById("result").value = result;
}</script>
<script type="application/x-javascript" src="script.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="Background">
<div class="Content">
<h1>How to Turn Your Azure Free Credits into NIMIQ (NIM)</h1>
<p>The rate can fluctuate between 1:1 and 1:4, i.e. in the best case
you'll get almost 1$ worth of cryptocurrency for every 1$ spent on
azure (depending on the current exchange-rates). <strong>With an MSDN
Enterprise subscription you can mine cryptocurrency worth up to 149$
every month!</strong> This is possible because the newly introduced
Azure-batch-service is dirt cheap!</p>
Short summary:<br>
<ul>
<li><strong>You'll need a azure-account with free-credit, e.g. from a
MSDN-subscription</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong>Get a NIMIQ-wallet</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong>Start mining with the Azure-Batch-Service using the
scripts provided here</strong></li>
</ul>
With the instructions provided here you will be mining NIMIQ (NIM). <a
href="https://nimiq.com/">NIMIQ</a> is the hot new browser-based
cryptocurrency. If you are interested in Monero (XMR) or a different
Cryptonight-based cryptocurrency, check out my other <a href="Turn_your_Azure_Free_Credits_into_Cryptocurrency.html">guide</a>.
Even if you are interested only in NIMIQ you could still have a look at
the guide because there's a video of the setup-procedure available
there. <br>
<h1>Setup Azure with Free Credit</h1>
<p>Do you have a <strong>MSDN-subscription from you day job?</strong>
Great! You must have already noticed that Microsoft keeps sending you
emails asking you to open an azure-account with up to 150$ monthly
credit. Follow the instructions in the mail to claim your free
credits. <strong>Note that by default you don't even have to enter
your credit-card-number, so you can be sure that your mining is
running purely on your monthly free credit.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Even if your company pays for the MSDN-subscription, the
associated azure-account is your personal account and completely
separated from the company.</strong> Your boss has no way of
accessing it. Microsoft encourages people to use the free credits for
testing and learning, and this is what you'll do: learning about using
the azure-cloud and the blockchain-technology in a very practical way
:-)</p>
<p> If you don't have a MSDN-subscription, you can at least use the <strong>one-time
credit of 200$</strong> you get just for opening the Azure-account.
Depending on the current altcoin-exchange-rate and whether azure adds
tax to you bill or not it might even be profitable to keep running
your azure-account on your credit-card - but note that you'll be
operating on a razor-thin margin!</p>
<h1>Get a NIM-Wallet</h1>
<p>Create your NIM-wallet at the official NIMIQ-site: <a href="https://safe.nimiq.com/#">safe.nimiq.com</a>.
Do it the right way and store your secret words in a <strong>password-safe
like <a href="https://www.keepassx.org/"> keepass</a>. Trust me,
you'll regret it otherwise. <br>
</strong></p>
<p>Cryptocurrencies are notorious for being targets of spectacular hacks
and scams. Don't enter your login-details on a phishing site (check
your browser's address bar to make sure that you are really on
safe.nimiq.com before entering your password!).<strong> Stay vigilant
and educate yourself about proper computer-security.</strong><strong></strong><br>
<strong> </strong> </p>
<h1>Setup the Azure Batch-Service </h1>
<p>After signing up for your azure-account you can click on the
following link to create a <strong>new batch-account</strong>: <a href="https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.BatchAccount">https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.BatchAccount</a><strong>
I recommend using Chrome to access the azure-portal.</strong> Fill
the form with the following information:<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Account name: Just a name for your batch-account</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong>Resource Group: Click 'Create New' and give it a name,
e.g. 'myRecGroup'</strong></li>
<li><strong>Location: Choose 'Central US'</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong>Leave the other options at the default-settings.</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong>Click on 'Create' at the bottom to create the
batch-account</strong></li>
</ul>
<p> Once you get the notification that your batch-account has been
created (it will take a few seconds), go to your batch-account and <strong>create
a new pool</strong>: select <strong>'Pools'</strong> and then click
<strong>'Add'</strong>. Fill the form with the following information:<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>Section 'Pool Detail':</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<ul>
<li><strong>Pool ID: Just a name for your azure-pool</strong></li>
</ul>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Section 'Operating System':</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<ul>
<li><strong>Publisher: Canonical</strong></li>
<li><strong>SKU: 16-04 LTS</strong></li>
</ul>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Section 'Node Size':</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<ul>
<li><strong>&nbsp;Node pricing tier: 'Standard F2s_V2 (2 Cores,
4GB)'<br>
</strong>(Choose the exact type! Otherwise you will not get the
optimal hashrate!)<strong><br>
</strong></li>
</ul>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Leave the other options at the
default-settings.</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Click on 'OK' at the bottom to create
the azure-pool</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<p> Whenever the computers in your azure-pool get started up, they will
execute a custom script which will download the mining-executable and
start mining. <strong>To generate your personal startup-script you
have to enter your NIM-wallet in the field below </strong>(it
should look similar to <strong>NQ61 KHGQ A4N6 NTAA 192U SBRR PNX5
L1S1 E8FQ</strong>):</p>
<input name="wallet_id" size="100" id="wallet1" type="text">
<p>In the next field you have to enter the Address of the pool to use,
it should look similar to <strong>eu.sushipool.com:443</strong>. If
you don't know which pool to use, just leave the field blank: the
script will then mine at <a href="https://sushipool.com">sushipool</a>.<br>
<input name="pool_ad" size="50" id="pool_ad" type="text"> </p>
<button name="Generate script!" value="Generate script!" type="button" onclick="assemblescript()">Generate
script!</button><br>
<p>Press the button above to generate your personalized script in the
field below:</p>
<textarea name="result" cols="100" rows="5" id="result"></textarea> <br>
Notes:<br>
<ul>
<li>Generation of the script doesn't work? Try opening this website in
Chrome.</li>
<li>The script is using the miner from <a href="https://miner.beeppool.org/">beeppool.org</a>.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>
<p>Once the azure-pool is created, go to <strong>'Start task'</strong>.
Fill the form with the following information:<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Command line: here you have to enter your personalized
script from the textfield above</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong>User identity: 'Task Autouser, Admin'</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong>Leave the other options at the default.</strong></li>
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong>Click on 'Save'</strong></li>
</ul>
<p> The last step is to tell Azure how many mining-nodes it should start
for you. This depends on the amount of free credits available in your
azure-account. <strong>Basically you want to use up as much of your
monthly credit as possible without actually consuming all of your
credit</strong> (otherwise you'll have to repeat the setup again in
the next month because azure will delete your pools if your free
credits are exhausted).</p>
<table style="width: 744px; height: 104px;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><br>
</td>
<td>Professional</td>
<td>Platform</td>
<td>Enterprise</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Number of low priority nodes (F2s_v2, 2 Cores, 4GB)</td>
<td><strong>3<br>
</strong></td>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td><strong>10<br>
</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cost of nodes for 31 days</td>
<td>~38$</td>
<td>~89$</td>
<td>~126$</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Monthly free credit</td>
<td>50$</td>
<td>100$</td>
<td>150$</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<ul>
<li>If azure is using your local currency instead of USD the numbers
might look slightly different. If you run out of free credit before
the end of the month, just reduce the number of nodes by one and try
again.</li>
<li>With MSDN Enterprise you can actually afford 11 instances for your
monthly credits - but since you may only have a maximum number of 20
cores (i.e. 10 F2-instances) per region you'll have to create a
second pool in a different region (e.g. North Central US) for the
11th instance.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Now go back to 'Overview' and click on 'Scale'. Enter the
number from the table above in the field 'Low priority nodes' (e.g.
3 if you have MSDN Professional), and click on 'Save'.
Congratulations! The azure cloud is now mining Monero for you!</strong></p>
<h1>Watching your Mining-Progress</h1>
<p>Unless you have entered a different address in the field the script
will use <a href="https://sushipool.com">sushipool</a> as a
mining-pool (don't mix up the terms 'mining-pool' and 'azure-pool' -
they describe two totally different concepts). To see your
mining-status, go to <a href="https://sushipool.com">sushipool.com</a>
and enter your wallet in the field at the top of the site.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The VM takes around 5 minutes to startup and setup the
mining-software. After that you will see your hashrate at the pool
slowly increasing.</strong> The displayed hashrate will vary
wildly - this is normal.</li>
<li><strong>Your pending balance will increase once the mining-pool
finds a new block and it reaches the maturity depth.</strong> For
a big pool like sushipool this will take an hour or so. However, if
the pool is unlucky, it can also take longer.</li>
<li><strong>Each pool has different rules regarding payout. Sushipool
will transfer your earnings every three hours with a minimum
amount of 1 NIM.</strong></li>
</ul>
<h1>Important Notes: </h1>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Some reasons why the hashrate displayed by the pool will
vary a lot</strong>:</li>
<ul>
<li>In exchange for the low price azure does not guarantee 100%
availability for the low-priority-VMs (in my experience the VMs
are in fact available most of the time, though).</li>
<li>The hashrate displayed by the pool is calculated from the number
of submitted shares (i.e. shares which exceed the custom
difficulty of the pool), not from the number of hashes your miner
has actually calculated.<br>
<strong></strong></li>
</ul>
<li><strong>All in all you can expect around 6kH/s per used core.</strong></li>
<ul>
</ul>
<li><strong>Azure has a standard-limit of 20 low-priority-cores per
region</strong>. If the quota in your azure-account is less than
that, you can request an increase of this quota through the azure
support. I recommend not asking for more than 20 cores. We are
operating in some kind of gray area here, you don't want to cause a
big stir...<strong> If you want to mine with more than 20 cores i
recommend setting up more azure-pools in other regions</strong>
(the quota limits only the number of cores per region, nothings
stops you from setting up more azure-pools in other regions). Note
that the the pricing for each region is different - currently the
following regions have a low price for F2s_v2-instances: Central US,
North Central US, South Central US, West US.</li>
<li><b>The script will restart itself every few days and download the
the latest version of the miner-executable.</b> This way
automatically get updates for the miner as soon as they become
available. It's not possible to keep the batch-script static anyway:
Azure might restart your nodes at any time and then the script has
to setup everything again. <br>
<strong></strong></li>
<li><strong>Nothing in life is free.</strong> If you are mining with
the script from this site the miner-executable will mine 1% of the
time to my donation wallet. From the cryptocurrency generated this
way i pledge to donate half (0.5%) to the authors of the
mining-software. You can disable the donation by changing the phrase
'donation=1' to 'donation=0' in the startup-script.</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>Do you need help following the instructions? You can contact me at
<script>document.write('<'+'a'+' '+'h'+'r'+'e'+'f'+'='+"'"+'m'+'&'+'#'+'9'+'7'+';'+'i'+'&'+'#'+'1'+'0'+'8'+';'+'t'+'o'+'&'+
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'&'+'#'+'1'+'0'+'9'+';'+'<'+'/'+'a'+'>');</script><noscript>[Turn on JavaScript to see the email address]</noscript>
</p>
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
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