Compute and web vmss

Virtual machine scale set naming convention

The CAF abbreviation for Virtual machine scale set is vmss. Names can be 1 to 64 characters long and allow alphanumerics and hyphens. The name must be unique within the resource group.

Naming rules

CAF abbreviation	vmss
Length	1 to 64 characters
Allowed characters	Alphanumerics (a-z, A-Z, 0-9), hyphens
Scope of uniqueness	Unique within the resource group
CAF pattern	vmss-{workload}-{environment}-{region}-{instance}

Worth knowing: This is the resource name (up to 64). The Windows computer-name prefix is capped at 9 chars (each instance gets a numeric suffix); set it explicitly in IaC (computer_name_prefix). Linux allows up to 64.

Rules follow Microsoft's resource naming rules and CAF abbreviations. Some resource types have extra start/end character restrictions, so verify against the official docs before locking in a convention.

Example names

Generated by the same engine as the name generator, so length and character rules are already applied.

Scenario	Generated name	Length
Payments API, production	`vmss-payments-prod-eus-001`	26/64
Web app, development	`vmss-webapp-dev-weu-002`	23/64
Analytics with company prefix	`vmss-contoso-analytics-stage-uks-001`	36/64

Naming in Terraform and Bicep

Build the name from variables so one module produces the right name in every environment.

Terraform

locals {
  vmss_name = "vmss-${var.workload}-${var.environment}-${var.region}-001"
}

Bicep

var vmssName = 'vmss-${workload}-${environment}-${region}-001'

Generate Virtual machine scale set names for your workload

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See the full list of Azure resource naming rules or read the complete CAF naming guide.