# Deploy Azure Hosts
**URL:** https://forums.suse.com/t/deploy-azure-hosts/1442
**Category:** Rancher 1.x
**Created:** [January 12, 2016, 9:36am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/deploy-azure-hosts/1442 "2016-01-12T09:36:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kvaes](https://forums.suse.com/u/kvaes)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2016, 9:36am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/deploy-azure-hosts/1442/1 "2016-01-12T09:36:16Z")
Could anyone point me to the correct way to setup Azure hosts?
When using the “Add Hosts”, and then “Other” I always get the following error message ;
“illegal base64 data at input byte 11”
Though, when I try the same ,directly from the shell of the Rancher host with a (debug purposed) local install of docker-machine, it works without a hassle…
> root@rancher01:~# vi Azure.publishsettings
> root@rancher01:~# curl -L [https://github.com/docker/machine/releases/download/v0.5.3/docker-machine\_linux-amd64](https://github.com/docker/machine/releases/download/v0.5.3/docker-machine_linux-amd64) \>/usr/local/bin/docker-machine
> % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
> Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
> 100 599 0 599 0 0 262 0 --:–:-- 0:00:02 --:–:-- 262
> 100 14.1M 100 14.1M 0 0 2183k 0 0:00:06 0:00:06 --:–:-- 3823k
> root@rancher01:~# chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-machine
> root@rancher01:~# docker-machine create -d azure --azure-publish-settings-file /root/Azure.publishsettings testrancherhost
> Creating CA: /root/.docker/machine/certs/ca.pem
> Creating client certificate: /root/.docker/machine/certs/cert.pem
> Running pre-create checks…
> Creating machine…
> (testrancherhost) Creating Azure machine…
> Waiting for machine to be running, this may take a few minutes…
I’ve tested both the publishsettings file & the certificate method. Both give the same result…
“illegal base64 data at input byte \*\*\*” (where the byte sometimes changes)
Is this familiar to someone?
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### Author:  [@kvaes](https://forums.suse.com/u/kvaes)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/deploy-azure-hosts/1442/2 "2016-01-15T14:39:38Z")
Issue fixed ; [https://kvaes.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/rancher-provisioning-hosts-on-azure/](https://kvaes.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/rancher-provisioning-hosts-on-azure/)
The “subscriptionCert” should be a base64 encoded string of your .pem certificate.
> cat ~/.docker/ca.pem | base64
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### Author:  [@cjellick](https://forums.suse.com/u/cjellick)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/deploy-azure-hosts/1442/3 "2016-01-15T14:58:43Z")
Sorry for lack of response @kvaes. I’m glad you figured it out and thanks for the cool write up. I’ll see if we can note the base64 issue somewhere in the UI or docs.
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### Author:  [@denise](https://forums.suse.com/u/denise)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2016, 6:46pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/deploy-azure-hosts/1442/4 "2016-01-19T18:46:53Z")
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### Author:  [@denise](https://forums.suse.com/u/denise)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2016, 6:47pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/deploy-azure-hosts/1442/5 "2016-01-19T18:47:32Z")
Thanks for the update. I’ve just updated the docs to include some notes on this. I have never deployed on Azure so wasn’t able to test it out myself to provide you additional information.