Edit

Create virtual machines in a scale set using PowerShell

  • Article

This article steps through using PowerShell to create a Virtual Machine Scale Set.

Launch Azure Cloud Shell

The Azure Cloud Shell is a free interactive shell that you can use to run the steps in this article. It has common Azure tools preinstalled and configured to use with your account.

To open the Cloud Shell, just select Try it from the upper right corner of a code block. You can also launch Cloud Shell in a separate browser tab by going to https://shell.azure.com/powershell. Select Copy to copy the blocks of code, paste it into the Cloud Shell, and press enter to run it.

Create resource group

Create an Azure resource group with New-AzResourceGroup. A resource group is a logical container into which Azure resources are deployed and managed.

New-AzResourceGroup -Name 'myVMSSResourceGroup' -Location 'EastUS'

Create a Virtual Machine Scale Set

Now create a Virtual Machine Scale Set with New-AzVmss. The following example creates a scale set with an instance count of two running Windows Server 2019 Datacenter edition.

Important

Starting November 2023, VM scale sets created using PowerShell and Azure CLI will default to Flexible Orchestration Mode if no orchestration mode is specified. For more information about this change and what actions you should take, go to Breaking Change for VMSS PowerShell/CLI Customers - Microsoft Community Hub

New-AzVmss `
    -ResourceGroup "myVMSSResourceGroup" `
    -Name "myScaleSet" `
    -OrchestrationMode "Flexible" `
    -Location "East US" `
    -InstanceCount "2" `
    -ImageName "Win2019Datacenter"

Clean up resources

When you delete a resource group, all resources contained within, such as the VM instances, virtual network, and disks, are also deleted. The -Force parameter confirms that you wish to delete the resources without another prompt to do so. The -AsJob parameter returns control to the prompt without waiting for the operation to complete.

Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name "myResourceGroup" -Force -AsJob

Next steps

Learn how to create a scale set in the Azure portal.