Create virtual machines in a scale set using PowerShell

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

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 'chinanorth2'

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 "China North 2" `
    -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.