Adding Disk To VM, Azure Compute Gallery and Virtual Machine Scale Set. #Part 2

#beginners #devops #learning #azure

Creating an Image from the VM

Go to Azure Compute Gallery:

In the portal, search for Azure Compute Gallery and click Create.

Set Up the Gallery:

Choose your Subscription, Resource Group, and provide a Gallery Name and Region.

Click Review + Create, then Create to finish setting up the gallery.

Add an Image to the Gallery:

In the Azure Compute Gallery, select Add Image.

Choose the VM you created earlier as the source, configure any additional image settings, and add it to the gallery.

This image can now be reused for other VMs or for a Virtual Machine Scale Set, saving time and ensuring consistency across your deployments.

Creating a Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS)

A Virtual Machine Scale Set **helps you automatically scale out or in based on your **application's demand, improving cost efficiency and resource management.

Navigate to Virtual Machine Scale Sets:

In the Azure portal, go to Virtual Machine Scale Sets (+ VMSS) and click Create.

Configure the Scale Set:

Select your Subscription and Resource Group.
Provide a Scale Set Name and choose a Region.
Under Image, choose the image from your compute gallery.
Set the Instance Size, configure Manually update the capacity.
Review and Create:
Click Review + Create to validate your settings, then Create to deploy the scale set.
Once deployed, your Virtual Machine Scale Set will automatically adjust the number of instances based on the demand, using the image you configured in the compute gallery.

And choose Load Balancing options if desired:
As you recall, I made the decision to manually alter the capacity/setting.

Azure Load Balancer is a cloud service provided by Microsoft Azure that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple virtual machines (VMs) or instances to ensure high availability and reliability for applications. It operates at Layer 4 of the OSI model (the transport layer), handling TCP and UDP traffic.

What is Orchestration?

The automated scaling and management of virtual machine instances within a Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS) is referred to as orchestration in Azure. As demands vary, orchestration ensures consistency and dependability by coordinating processes like instance creation, configuration, and management.

Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set Orchestration Modes

There are two main orchestration modes supported by Azure VM Scale Sets:

Mode of Uniform Orchestration:

In this manner, a central model called the scale set model is used to produce instances. This model specifies parameters such as networking setup, data disk count, virtual machine size, and others.
This preconfigured model is used when the scale set adds new instances, guaranteeing that every instance has the same setup.
Ideal for: Batch processing, stateless applications, or situations where consistency between virtual machines is crucial.

Adaptable Orchestration Mode:

By enabling VMs inside the scale set to have varying configurations (e.g., various VM sizes or associated resources), this mode offers greater flexibility.
Each virtual machine (VM) can be manually managed in flexible mode, and for increased robustness, they can be distributed within availability zones.

Ideal for: Custom configurations, stateful applications, or situations requiring high availability across several zones.
Depending on the requirements of the architecture of your application, each orchestration mode offers varying degrees of automation and control.