Create virtual machines in a scale set using Azure CLI

This article steps through using the Azure CLI to create a Virtual Machine Scale Set.

Make sure that you've installed the latest Azure CLI and are logged in to an Azure account with az login.

Create a resource group

Create a resource group with az group create as follows:

az group create --name myResourceGroup --location chinanorth2

Create a Virtual Machine Scale Set

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

Now create a Virtual Machine Scale Set with az vmss create. The following example creates a scale set with an instance count of 2, and generates SSH keys.

az vmss create \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --name myScaleSet \
  --orchestration-mode Flexible \
  --image <SKU Linux Image> \
  --instance-count 2 \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys

Clean up resources

To remove your scale set and other resources, delete the resource group and all its resources with az group delete. The --no-wait parameter returns control to the prompt without waiting for the operation to complete. The --yes parameter confirms that you wish to delete the resources without another prompt to do so.

az group delete --name myResourceGroup --yes --no-wait

Next steps