Blockchain peer not able to min block in Azure

Question

I've set up a private blockchain in Azure using the predefined template. The setup went well and two of the three nodes are also mining blocks. However, for some reason I can't send Ether from the admin site to a wallet I've set up in MetaMask eventhough I'm connected to my blockchain via RPC. I think it has something to do with the first node not mining any blocks. Can someone tell me how I can fix this situation? 

Answer 1

After trying out various ideas, making sure that all the nodes can communicate with each other (port forwarding) and typing miner.start() in the geth console of tx0 did the job.

It's important to note that miner.start() has to be set after every start of the VM. My idea is now to automate that upon every start of the VM