Load balancing Services on a Single VM Using VMSS to Decrease Costs

Question

Is it possible to use VMSS to load balance services on a single VM and scale out instead of scheduling a scale up with the associated downtime and complexity that introduces? Currently, Azure Advisor suggests resizing several VMs, but I am not a fan of scheduling a PS script to run with an automation runbook. I am exploring ways to decrease costs and would like to know if this is feasible.

If you need further clarification, please let me know. I have found conversations on this topic to be sparse online. Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi @Travis Haviv

A scale set applies to a group of VMs, not a single VM. VMSS are designed to provide scale-out capabilities, which means adding more instances of the same VM to distribute load and maintain high availability. This is not the same as scaling up a single VM, which refers to increasing its resources (CPU, RAM, disk space, etc.) to handle higher loads.

To change the size of the vm on demand, you will need to restart the vm, which in this case will have downtime.

Get in touch if you need more help with this issue.

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