Note
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try signing in or changing directories.
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try changing directories.
Microsoft Azure offers various virtual machine based compute products designed to meet different workload requirements. Standard Virtual Machines (VMs), and Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) are some of the compute products that provide flexibility and scalability for various applications.
Virtual Machines (VMs) are the fundamental building blocks of Azure compute. They offer full control over the operating system and applications, making them suitable for a wide range of workloads. VMs provide the flexibility to choose the operating system, size, and configuration that best fits your needs.
Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) extend the capabilities of VMs by enabling the deployment and management of a group of VMs. This service is ideal for applications that require high availability or scalability. VMSS can ensure that your applications can handle varying loads efficiently by automatically increasing or decreasing the number of VMs in response to changes in demand.
The product you select depends on the workload you intend to run. Check out the product comparison table in this article or in the Azure portal to choose between these solutions.
Product comparison table
Virtual Machines |
Virtual Machine Scale Sets |
|
|---|---|---|
| Product Description | Create and manually configure individual VMs. | Load-balanced, automatically scaling VM groups with workload optimization across multiple availability zones. |
| Instances | Single instances deployed individually | 2 to 1,000 instances |
| Product Differences See top product capabilities and limitations side by side |
- Deploy and manage each VM individually - Fine-tune custom applications - Assigned to one availability zone at a time |
- Up to 1,000 mixed-size VMs in a group - Scale automatically - Fault domains for high availability - Integrate Azure Spot VMs to cut costs - Optimized for stateless or stateful workloads |
| Use Case Find the right product for your project |
- Small, simple jobs - Specialized single-instance apps - Test configurations and experiment with Azure |
- Scaling beyond a single VM - Platform engineering or infrastructure as code - Moving on-premises apps to the cloud - Parallelized high-performance computing workloads - Databases - Batch processing - Maintain performance while controlling costs - Mix VM sizes for more flexibility |
Product specifications
The cost of any Azure VM environment depends upon the number of VM instances, their configuration, and selected add-on services. There's no added charge for using Virtual Machine Scale Sets.
| Virtual Machines | Virtual Machine Scale Sets |
|---|---|
| - Billed as an individual VM instance - Cost-effective for consistent load and traffic |
Optimize costs with VMSS - VMSS can automatically use less capacity when load/traffic is low, and optimizes cost while accommodating the dips and spikes of cyclical, intermittent, and growing workloads - Use 100% Spot VMs, or mix with standard ones, to cut cost |
Next steps
Take advantage of the latest performance and features available for your workloads by changing the size of a virtual machine.
Learn how to Monitor Azure virtual machines.