Create a virtual machine scale set with the Azure CLI

This script creates an Azure virtual machine scale set with an Ubuntu operating system and related networking resources including a load balancer. After running the script, you can access the VM instances over SSH.

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

Prerequisites

Sample script

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.

When Cloud Shell opens, verify that Bash is selected for your environment. Subsequent sessions will use Azure CLI in a Bash environment, Select Copy to copy the blocks of code, paste it into the Cloud Shell, and press Enter to run it.

Sign in to Azure

Cloud Shell is automatically authenticated under the initial account signed-in with. Use the following script to sign in using a different subscription, replacing <Subscription ID> with your Azure Subscription ID. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

subscription="<subscriptionId>" # add subscription here

az account set -s $subscription # ...or use 'az login'

For more information, see set active subscription or log in interactively

Run the script

let "randomIdentifier=$RANDOM*$RANDOM"
location="East US"
resourceGroup="msdocs-vmss-rg-$randomIdentifier"
tags="simple-scale-set-vmss"
image="UbuntuLTS"
scaleSet="msdocs-scaleSet-$randomIdentifier"
upgradePolicyMode="automatic"
instanceCount="2"
login="azureuser"

# Create a resource group
echo "Creating $resourceGroup in $location..."
az group create --name $resourceGroup --location "$location" --tag $tag

# Create a scale set
# Network resources such as an Azure load balancer are automatically created
echo "Creating $scaleSet with $instanceCount instances"
az vmss create --resource-group $resourceGroup --name $scaleSet --image $image --upgrade-policy-mode $upgradePolicyMode --instance-count $instanceCount --admin-username $login --generate-ssh-keys

Clean up resources

Use the following command to remove the resource group and all resources associated with it using the az group delete command - unless you have an ongoing need for these resources. Some of these resources may take a while to create, as well as to delete.

az group delete --name $resourceGroup

Sample reference

This script uses the commands outlined in the following table:

Command Notes
az group create Creates a resource group in which all resources are stored.
az vmss create Creates the virtual machine scale set and connects it to the virtual network, subnet, and network security group. A load balancer is also created to distribute traffic to multiple VM instances. This command also specifies the VM image to be used and administrative credentials.
az group delete Deletes a resource group including all nested resources.

Next steps

For more information on the Azure CLI, see Azure CLI documentation.