Hi,
1- About error message bellow:
IOError: Software Release https://lab.nexedi.com/nexedi/slapos/raw/master/software/slapos-master/software.cfg is not correctly installed.
Missing file: /opt/slapgrid/bcb8fbfbae583c14297f14ec8ebc3724/instance.cfg
It mean that the software release is not correctly compiled. If compilation of sotware release fail, SlapOS will retry until it succeed. I think all you did was ok, but the SlapOS Master Software doesn't compile in your distro, it need to be fixed. In your case, you can get compilation error message with: tail -f /opt/slapos/log/slapos-node-software.log
Although SlapOS will retry to compile your software release to fix errors, if some file cannot be downloaded for example, the compilation will always fail. So you must check the log to make sure that Software can compile. Can you show what you have in your /opt/slapos/log/slapos-node-software.log ?
2- Yes, your instance is now start requested this mean that your account has been validated.
3- As your are deploying instance in your own server, you will only need to pay 1€ per month for instance subscription, if you have 2 instances, it will be 2 €, ...
Regards,
Alain Takoudjou