information on VMSS

Question

Can we say that VM and VM instances are the same thing..?, and can we say that Vm instances can be spun faster compared to VM

Answer 1

Hi Bruce Wayne,

In Azure, "VM" (Virtual Machine) and "VM Instance" typically refer to the same thing—a single virtualized compute resource. However, in Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS), "VM" describes the base template, while "VM instances" are the scaled copies. A standalone VM is an individually managed resource, whereas a VM instance in VMSS is one of many identical deployments from a shared configuration. The distinction mainly matters in scaling contexts, not general usage.

VMSS instances deploy faster than standalone VMs due to architectural optimizations. Unlike individual VMs—which require full provisioning (networking, storage, and OS setup for each deployment)—VMSS uses predefined templates and shared configurations to eliminate redundant steps. It supports autoscaling, pre-provisioned capacity pools, and flexible orchestration, bypassing sequential resource allocation. Additional speed gains come from ephemeral OS disks, pre-warmed Azure Spot capacity, and parallelized scaling. While standalone VMs validate resources per deployment, VMSS leverages platform-level efficiencies for rapid, bulk instance launches—especially at scale.

For detailed information, please check: azure virtual machine scale sets

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