Azure Documentation

Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets

Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) allow you to deploy and manage a set of identical, load-balanced virtual machines. VMSS simplifies the management and automation of virtual machine deployment, making it easier to build highly available and scalable applications.

Key Features

• Automatic Scaling: Configure rules to automatically scale the number of VM instances up or down based on performance metrics like CPU utilization or network traffic.
• Load Balancing: Integrate with Azure Load Balancer or Application Gateway to distribute incoming traffic across VM instances.
• Orchestration: Manage the deployment, updating, and deletion of VM instances efficiently.
• Customization: Deploy VMs from custom images or marketplace images with pre-configured software.
• High Availability: Distribute instances across multiple fault domains and availability zones to ensure resilience.

Use Cases

• Web applications requiring high availability and scalability.
• Batch processing jobs that can be parallelized.
• APIs and microservices that need to handle fluctuating demand.
• Development and test environments that require identical configurations.

Getting Started

To create a Virtual Machine Scale Set, you can use the Azure portal, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or ARM templates.

Using Azure CLI:

az vmss create \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --name myScaleSet \
  --image Ubuntu2204 \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --vm-sku Standard_DS1_v2 \
  --instances 3
            

Using Azure Portal:

1. Navigate to the Azure portal.
2. Search for "Virtual machine scale sets" and select it.
3. Click "Create".
4. Fill in the required details, including subscription, resource group, scale set name, operating system, instance count, and VM size.
5. Configure networking, load balancing, and scaling options as needed.
6. Review and create the scale set.

Managing Scale Sets

Once created, you can manage your VMSS by performing actions such as:

• Scaling: Manually adjust the instance count or configure automatic scaling rules.
• Upgrading: Deploy new application versions or OS updates to the instances.
• Deallocating: Stop VM instances to save costs.
• Deleting: Remove the scale set and its associated resources.

Refer to the official Azure documentation for more in-depth details and advanced configurations.