Total count of Virtual Machine if we opt Availability zone option in a scale set of two virtual machines

Question

I have created a azure virtual machine scale set with two instances and also opted the Availability zone option ( selected all three available choices (1, 2,3). After the deployment of Scale set i am able to see two instances of virtual machines are created and visible in azure portal. Now I am confused to build my understanding and need help in below two questions -

1- If only two instances get created in this scenario then how they spread in three selected availability zones (1 , 2 & 3).

2- If same scale set with instances are getting created , how can i see other remaining 4 instances( as two are already visible) in the portal .

Answer 1

Q1. If only two instances get created in this scenario then how they spread in three selected availability zones (1, 2 & 3).

As I know, the availability zone is available for each instance. It means each instance is effectively distributed across three fault domains and three update domains when you select three zones. You use the CLI command to list all the instances to see which zone the instances in:

az vmss list-instances -g group_name -n vmss_name

Q2. If the same scale set with instances are getting created, how can I see other remaining 4 instances( as two are already visible) in the portal?

You cannot see the replicate of the instance in the portal, they are managed by the Azure platform. You also need not care about that.