--- title: Virtual Machine Scale Set in Azure Microsoft description: Virtual Machine Scale Set, an interesting service offered by Microsoft Azure, helps to create and manage a group of identical, load balancer Virtual Machines (VMs). The number of VM instances can automatically increase or decrease based on scheduled conditions. image: https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/blog-files/virtual-machine-scale-set-in-azure-microsoft.jpg --- [![e-Zest logo\_An accion lab company\_Colour](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/images/Logos%20with%20Tagline/Corporate/SVG/e-Zest%20logo_An%20accion%20lab%20company_Colour.svg "e-Zest logo_An accion lab company_Colour")](https://www.e-zest.com/) - [WORK](https://www.e-zest.com/our-work) - [SERVICES](https://www.e-zest.com/our-services) - [Product Engineering](https://www.e-zest.com/digital-product-engineering-services) - [Enterprise Data Services](https://www.e-zest.com/enterprise-data-services) - [Digital Commerce](https://www.e-zest.com/digital-commerce-services) - [Digital Operations](https://www.e-zest.com/digital-operations) - [Digital Consulting](https://www.e-zest.com/digital-transformation-consulting-services) - [Digital Experience Design](https://www.e-zest.com/digital-experience-design) - [INSIGHTS](https://blog.e-zest.com/) - [CAREERS](https://www.e-zest.com/careers) - [ENTERPRISE DATA SERVICES](https://www.e-zest.com/enterprise-data-services) - [GENERATIVE AI](https://www.e-zest.com/generative-ai) - [Healthcare](https://healthcare.e-zest.com) - [Contact Us](https://www.e-zest.com/contact-us) - ![Elevating Product Engineering with AI and ML](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/Elevating%20Product%20Engineering%20with%20AI%20and%20ML.jpg) [BLOGS](https://blog.e-zest.com) #### Elevating Product Engineering with AI and ML As technology evolves and customer choices broaden, there is an increasing ... [Read more](https://blog.e-zest.com/elevating-product-engineering-with-ai-and-ml) - ![e-Zest – An Accion Labs Company gets Recognition as a Contender in the ISG Provider Lens™ Study on Digital Engineering Services 2024](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/e-Zest%20%E2%80%93%20An%20Accion%20Labs%20Company%20-%20Gets%20Recognition%20as%20a%20Contender%20in%20the%20ISG%20Provider%20LensTM%20Study%20on%20Digital%20Engineering%20Services%202024.jpg) [NEWS](https://blog.e-zest.com/news) #### e-Zest – An Accion Labs Company gets Recognition as a Contender in the ISG Provider Lens™ Study on Digital Engineering Services 2024 We are delighted to announce that e-Zest – An Accion Labs Company has been ... [Read more](https://blog.e-zest.com/news/e-zest-an-accion-labs-company-gets-recognition-as-a-contender-in-the-isg-provider-lens-study-on-digital-engineering-services-2024) - ![e-Zest Solutions supports Digital Pune Mission](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/blog-files/Digital%20Literacy%20Bus%20e-Zest.png) [CSR](https://blog.e-zest.com/csr) #### e-Zest Solutions supports Digital Pune Mission **Pune, India:** e-Zest Solutions, a leading digital technology innovation ... [Read more](https://blog.e-zest.com/csr/e-zest-solutions-supports-digital-pune-mission) - [Work](https://www.e-zest.com/our-work) - [Services](https://www.e-zest.com/our-services) - [Insights](https://blog.e-zest.com) - [Careers](https://www.e-zest.com/careers) - [Enterprise Data](https://www.e-zest.com/enterprise-data-services) - [Generative AI](https://www.e-zest.com/generative-ai) - [Innovations](https://www.e-zest.com/innovations) - [Healthcare](https://healthcare.e-zest.com) - [About](https://www.e-zest.com/about-us) - [Contact](https://www.e-zest.com/contact-us) - [Blog](https://blog.e-zest.com/) - [News](https://blog.e-zest.com/news) - [CSR](https://blog.e-zest.com/csr) - [![Linkedin Icon](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/icons/linkedin_icon_white.svg)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/e-zest-solutions/) - [![Twitter Icon](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/twitter-logo-silhouette%20(5).svg)](https://twitter.com/ezest) - [![Facebook Icon](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/facebook-app-logo%20(4).svg)](https://www.facebook.com/61259256638) - [![Instagram Icon](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/instagram-logo%20(4).svg)](https://www.instagram.com/ezestsolutions/) - [![Youtube Icon](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/icons/youtube_icon_white.svg)](https://www.youtube.com/user/ezestcorporate) [![Go to top icon](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/AA%20Assets/top%20button.svg)](https://blog.e-zest.com/virtual-machine-scale-set-in-azure-microsoft#top) Hit enter to search or ESC to close Insights e-Zest members share technology ideas to foster digital transformation. - [Blog](https://blog.e-zest.com) - [Whitepaper](https://blog.e-zest.com/whitepaper) - [Playbook](https://blog.e-zest.com/playbook) - [News](https://blog.e-zest.com/news) - [CSR](https://blog.e-zest.com/csr) - [Innovation](https://blog.e-zest.com/innovation) - [Healthcare](https://blog.e-zest.com/healthcare) - [Media Kit](https://www.e-zest.com/media-kit) # Virtual Machine Scale Set in Azure Microsoft [Surbhi Agarwal](https://blog.e-zest.com/author/surbhi-agarwal) Jan 16, 2020 [Microsoft Azure](https://blog.e-zest.com/topic/microsoft-azure) [Virtual Machine](https://blog.e-zest.com/topic/virtual-machine) [Virtual Machine Scale Set](https://blog.e-zest.com/topic/virtual-machine-scale-set) [VMSS](https://blog.e-zest.com/topic/vmss) - - - - Virtual Machine Scale Set, an interesting service offered by Microsoft Azure, helps to create and manage a group of identical, load balancer Virtual Machines (VMs). The number of VM instances can automatically increase or decrease based on scheduled conditions. Scale Sets are used to run multiple instances of an application and even if a problem arises, the customers can continue to access the application through one of the other instances with minimal interruption. Thus, Scale Sets provide high availability to your applications, and allow you to centrally manage, configure, and update many VMs. We can also use the Availability Zone to automatically distribute VM instances in a Scale Set with a single datacenter or across multiple datacenters. With the help of Virtual Machine Scale Sets, we can build large-scale services for areas such as compute, big data, and container workloads. A Scale Set can have around 0 to 1000 VMs based on platform images and around 0 to 600 VMs based on custom images. **Difference between Virtual Machine and Virtual Machine Scale Set** - It is true that Scale Sets are built from VMs. If we want to add additional VM instances, VM Scale Sets automatically create it from central configuration, traffic balancing and distribution, high availability and redundancy and scaling of VM whereas for normal virtual machine all these are manual processes. - For scaling of VMs we need to manually monitor and use Azure automation whereas for Virtual Machine Scale Set, auto scale is based on host metrics, in-guest metrics, Application Insights and schedule. **Best Way to reduce cost when you go with VMSS** It is said that Virtual Machine Scale Set is costly but there are ways to optimize the cost. If you are just testing, deploy VMSS with no auto scale. For the dev environment we can use VMSS with auto-scale with general purpose VMs and finally for production environment we can go with a combination of Low Priority and General purpose VMs, and auto Scale. We only need to pay for the underlying compute resources such as the VM instances, load balancer, or Managed Disk storage. The management and automation features, such as auto scale and redundancy, incur no additional charges over the use of VMs. How to create Virtual Machine Scale Set from Azure Portal: 1\. First, login to your Azure portal and select Create Resources and search for Virtual Machine Scale Set. A page similar to the one shown below will appear. ![vm-scale-set](https://blog.e-zest.com/hs-fs/hubfs/vm-scale-set.png?width=588&name=vm-scale-set.png) 2\. Click on ‘Create’. A page similar to the one shown below will appear. Fill in the required details: - Give the Virtual Machine Scale Set a name. - Select Operating system disk image. You can select private or public images as per your requirement. - Select your Subscription name. - Create new or existing Resource group. - Give the Location where you need to create the VMMS. - You can select Availability Zone as per the requirement. ![create-page](https://blog.e-zest.com/hs-fs/hubfs/create-page.png?width=677&name=create-page.png) - Enter username, password and confirm password. - Select instance count and size as per requirement. - Click on ‘Use managed disks’ option. ![create-page-1](https://blog.e-zest.com/hs-fs/hubfs/create-page-1.png?width=707&name=create-page-1.png) ![create-vm-scale-set](https://blog.e-zest.com/hs-fs/hubfs/create-vm-scale-set.png?width=715&name=create-vm-scale-set.png) - Auto scale can be either Disabled or Enabled ![autoscale](https://blog.e-zest.com/hs-fs/hubfs/autoscale.png?width=488&name=autoscale.png) - We can choose Load balancing options as per the requirement. ![load-balancing](https://blog.e-zest.com/hs-fs/hubfs/load-balancing.png?width=730&name=load-balancing.png) ![load-bal](https://blog.e-zest.com/hs-fs/hubfs/load-bal.png?width=739&name=load-bal.png) - In Management we need to opt for Boot diagnostics and choose its storage account. ![boot](https://blog.e-zest.com/hs-fs/hubfs/boot.png?width=734&name=boot.png) - Now click on Create. Your VMMS will be created as shown below: ![vmms](https://blog.e-zest.com/hs-fs/hubfs/vmms.png?width=737&name=vmms.png) **VMSS real world best practices which we can follow:** 1. We should use DevOps to deploy images on Virtual Machine Scale Set, a process made easier with the help of packer tool 2. For hosting any web-based app, VMSS should be our default choice because scaling is easy and automatically done as we schedule the conditions 3. Always deploy a dedicated subnet for VMSS 4. We should use PaaS DB offerings with Virtual Machine Scale Set, and should not go with VMSS to host DB 5. We should use Azure ARM Script to deploy VMSS as it offers more flexibility and control 6. For DR we should deploy another set of VMSS in cross region or cross zone. The DR should always be Active-Active and not Active-Passive 7. We should create base images with web servers and for code changes we can use Azure File share for all VMSS VMs 8. We can use PowerShell or Azure CLI for updating the applications 9. We should not do backup for Virtual Machine Scale Set 10. We should not login to the VM unless it is necessary *Additional References:* *[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/virtual-machine-scale-sets-faq](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/virtual-machine-scale-sets-faq)* *[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/quick-create-portal](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/quick-create-portal)* *[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/overview](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/overview)* - - - ### Similar Blog [![Enabling Azure Storage Management Lifecycle for Efficiency and Cost Optimization](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/Banners/Enabling%20Azure%20Storage%20Management%20Lifecycle%20for%20Efficiency%20and%20Cost%20Optimization.jpg) Enabling Azure Storage Management Lifecycle for Efficiency and Cost Optimization Efficient data management is vital for all organizations, particularly as data continues to proliferate. Azure Storage Management ... By Sourabh Majali Sep 29, 2023](https://blog.e-zest.com/enabling-azure-storage-management-lifecycle-for-efficiency-and-cost-optimization) [![How to Enable Accelerated Networking on NICs – Azure Virtual Machine using PowerShell + Excel sheet](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/Blog_Files/blog_image05_2x_2560x1334.jpg) How to Enable Accelerated Networking on NICs – Azure Virtual Machine using PowerShell + Excel sheet Accelerated Networking enables single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) to a VM, greatly improving its networking performance. ... By Sourabh Majali Jul 07, 2023](https://blog.e-zest.com/how-to-enable-accelerated-networking-on-nics-azure-virtual-machine-using-powershell-excel-sheet) [![How to shut down your Virtual Machine if it is idle for 'X' hours on the basis of CPU Utilization Percentage](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/How%20To%20Shut%20Down%20Your%20Virtual%20Machine.jpg) How to shut down your Virtual Machine if it is idle for 'X' hours on the basis of CPU Utilization Percentage A Virtual Machine (VM) is an environment that replicates a physical machine, having its own allocation of processing unit, ... By Sourabh Majali Oct 05, 2020](https://blog.e-zest.com/auto-stop-your-vm-based-on-cpu-utilization) [![Building Cloud First Apps Using Microsoft Azure](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/blog-files/Building%20cloud%20first%20blog.png) Building Cloud First Apps Using Microsoft Azure The COVID-19 pandemic required most of the organizations to adopt a remote working environment. This made people realize the ... By Corporate Jul 06, 2020](https://blog.e-zest.com/building-cloud-first-apps-using-microsoft-azure) [![Azure DevOps to build the CI/CD pipeline](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/blog-files/azure-devops.png) Azure DevOps to build the CI/CD pipeline The purpose of this blog is to give you an overview of Azure DevOps and how it can be used to build the CI/CD pipeline (Visual ... By Surbhi Agarwal May 16, 2019](https://blog.e-zest.com/azure-devops-to-build-the-ci-cd-pipeline) [![Connecting Windows host to Ansible Engine](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/blog-files/Connecting%20Windows%20host%20to%20Ansible%20Engine-190118.png) Connecting Windows host to Ansible Engine Ansible is a very useful tool. It is an open source IT configuration management, orchestration and deployment tool. It is better ... By Surbhi Agarwal Feb 13, 2019](https://blog.e-zest.com/connecting-windows-host-to-ansible-engine) [![How to deploy Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)?](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/kubernetes.png) How to deploy Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)? There are several commonly used DevOps tools and Kubernetes is one of them. Kubernetes is a portable, extensible open-source ... By Surbhi Agarwal Feb 12, 2019](https://blog.e-zest.com/how-to-deploy-azure-kubernetes-service) [![PowerShell Script for migrating Azure Classic to Azure Resource Manager](https://blog.e-zest.com/hubfs/PowerShell%20script%20for%20classic%20to%20ARM%20resource%20migration%20in%20Azure-290118.png) PowerShell Script for migrating Azure Classic to Azure Resource Manager First, install the latest version of Azure PowerShell. Ensure that you are an administrator for the subscription in Azure portal: ... By Surbhi Agarwal Feb 01, 2019](https://blog.e-zest.com/powershell-script-for-migrating-azure-classic-to-azure-resource-manager) ## Helping Organizations Thrive in the Digital Age [Contact Us](https://www.e-zest.com/contact-us) - [About](https://www.e-zest.com/about-us) - [Services](https://www.e-zest.com/our-services) - [Work](https://www.e-zest.com/our-work) - [Insights](https://blog.e-zest.com/) - [Healthcare](https://healthcare.e-zest.com/) - [Accion Labs](https://www.accionlabs.com/) - - - - - - Dallas - Detroit - Hannover - Vienna - London - Pune © 2025 e-Zest Solutions - [Privacy Policy](https://www.e-zest.com/privacypolicy) - [Cookie Policy](https://www.e-zest.com/cookie-policy) Contact us Contact us e-Zest is a leading digital innovation partner for enterprises and technology companies that utilizes emerging technologies for creating engaging customers experiences. Being a customer-focused and technology-driven company, it always helps clients in crafting holistic business value for their software development efforts. It offers software development and consulting services for cloud computing, enterprise mobility, big data and analytics, user experience and digital commerce.