Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets
Manage and scale up to thousands of Linux and Windows VMs
Create and manage thousands of virtual machines at scale
Build, on your terms, large-scale services for batch, big data, and container workloads using Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets, which let you create and manage a group of heterogeneous load-balanced virtual machines (VMs). Increase or decrease the number of VMs automatically in response to demand or based on a schedule you define. Centrally manage, configure, and update thousands of VMs and provide higher availability and security for your applications.
Create and deploy thousands of VMs in minutes with built-in load balancing and autoscaling based on centralized templates
Manage and autoscale your VM pool based on customizable metrics, and consistently control and deploy VM updates
Increase the availability of your stateful and stateless applications across availability zones and fault domains at a large scale
Choose VM images and consumption models that best fit your needs while gaining full control of individual VMs within a scale set
Simplify the management and governance of your VMs
Automate the creation and deployment of your VMs and automatically issue OS updates for improved compliance and security. Centralize your templates for a consistent rollout of your applications. Increase your focus on the application and avoid additional storage configuration or network management tasks. Deploy Virtual Machine Scale Sets using Azure Resource Manager templates—with support for Windows and Linux platform images and custom images and extensions.
Increase application resiliency
Increase application uptime by using availability zones and availability sets to automatically distribute VMs in a scale set within a single datacenter or across multiple datacenters. Scale sets run multiple VM instances of your application. Therefore, if one of these instances has a problem, your customers will continue to access your application with minimal disruption. Virtual Machine Scale Sets guarantee up to 99.99 percent service-level agreements (SLAs) for your VMs.
Optimize costs using unique capabilities
Optimize costs by minimizing the number of unnecessary VM instances that run your application when demand is low. Use your existing licenses to run Windows Server VMs on Azure with Azure Hybrid Benefit and combine Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances with Azure Hybrid Benefit to achieve additional savings. Run interruptible workloads with Azure Spot Virtual Machines on scale sets and realize up to 90 percent cost reduction versus pay-as-you-go rates.
Get new ways to manage scale sets
Get full control of the individual VMs within your scale set and ensure high availability at scale with Virtual Machines Scale Sets flexible orchestration mode. Change VM sizes without redeploying your scale set for increased operational agility. Mix Azure Spot Virtual Machines and pay-as-you-go VMs in the same scale set to optimize your costs. Manage VMs and VM scale sets using the same APIs. Accelerate your deployments by defining fault domains during the VM creation process.
Deliver uncompromised application performance at scale
Use only the compute resources your application needs at any time without pre-provisioning your VMs. Be future ready and let Azure autoscale your cloud infrastructure to meet your changing performance requirements. Scale sets are elastic and designed to support your scale-out workloads, including stateless web front ends, container orchestration, and microservices clusters.
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Azure Service Fabric run on Virtual Machine Scale Sets.
Decrease network administration complexity
Take advantage of the integration of Virtual Machine Scale Sets and Azure networking resources, such as Azure Load Balancer, to reduce cloud infrastructure management costs. Easily spread your workloads across the virtual machines in your scale sets and configure network address translation (NAT) rules to connect to specific virtual machine instances for troubleshooting. Focus more on what matters—your application—and less on the infrastructure.
Comprehensive security and compliance built-in to protect your applications at scale
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Microsoft invests more than USD 1 billion annually on cybersecurity research and development.
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We employ more than 3,500 security experts dedicated to data security and privacy.
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Azure has more certifications than any other cloud provider. View the comprehensive list.
Build scalable applications with VM scale sets
Develop dynamically scalable applications with Virtual Machine Scale Sets. Rightsize your infrastructure based on demand while optimizing costs. Simplify management and increase the resiliency of your business-critical applications at scale.
Virtual Machine Scale Sets pricing
Virtual Machine Scale Sets are currently available for all Windows or Linux VM sizes on Azure. You are only charged for the VMs you deploy and any additional underlying infrastructure resources consumed, such as storage and networking. There are no incremental charges for the Virtual Machine Scale Sets service itself.
Everything you need to get started
Get instant access and a $200 credit by signing up for a free Azure account.
Learn how to use Virtual Machine Scale Sets with 5-minute quickstart tutorials and documentation.
Documentation and resources
5-minute quickstarts
Learning modules
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