Efficiently Start Your Azure VMs in Batches of 5 with PowerShell

Описание: Learn how to efficiently manage the startup of multiple Azure VMs in batches of `5` using PowerShell. Follow this step-by-step guide tailored for Azure users.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/65482606/ asked by the user 'ferj' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/13562436/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/65483078/ provided by the user 'Doug Maurer' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/4085331/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Efficiently Start Your Azure VMs in Batches of 5 with PowerShell

Managing virtual machines (VMs) on Azure can sometimes become overwhelming, especially when trying to start multiple instances simultaneously. If you need to start a set of VMs in manageable batches—say, a maximum of 5 at a time—the process can be streamlined using PowerShell scripting. In this guide, we will walk you through the solution to achieve this in a clear and concise manner.

The Challenge

Let’s take a common scenario: you have 100 VMs in your Azure environment, and you need to start them in parallel. However, you want to limit the number of VMs to start at once to prevent overwhelming the system resources. The core of the challenge lies in limiting the foreach loop to process only a certain number of VMs at a time while utilizing PowerShell effectively.

The Solution

To achieve this, you can use a combination of PowerShell’s Select-Object command alongside a batching technique. Here’s how to set it up.

Step-by-Step Breakdown

Retrieve Your VMs: The first step is to get all the VMs you want to work with. Use the following command:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Set Up Your Batch Parameters: You will want to define how many VMs to skip and how many to select in each iteration. This can be done through a hashtable:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Create a Loop for Batching: Use a Do...Until loop to start the VMs in batches of 5. Inside the loop, you’ll configure the command to process the VMs in groups:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Explanation of Code Components

Start-Job: This command allows you to run a PowerShell script in the background, enabling parallel processing.

Wait-Job: It ensures that the script waits until all background jobs are complete before proceeding to the next batch.

Receive-Job: This collects the results from the completed jobs, allowing you to review or log the outputs if necessary.

Conclusion

With this setup, you can efficiently control and manage the startup of your Azure VMs in batches of 5, ensuring that your system remains responsive and effectively utilizes resources. This method grants you flexibility and better performance when handling multiple VMs, mitigating the risk of potential overload during startup.

By following this guide, you now have a robust solution to start your Azure VMs in a controlled manner. Enjoy the efficiency that comes with automated batch processing in your Azure management tasks!