Autoscale Setting

Introduction

Azure Monitor Autoscale Settings manage automatic scaling of compute resources based on schedule or metric-driven rules. Autoscale settings can target Virtual Machine Scale Sets, App Service plans, and other scalable resources. They are commonly used to adjust capacity in response to traffic patterns, reducing costs during off-peak periods while maintaining performance under load. For more information, see Overview of autoscale in Azure.

LocalStack for Azure provides a local environment for building and testing applications that make use of Azure Monitor Autoscale Settings. The supported APIs are available on our API Coverage section, which provides information on the extent of Autoscale Settings’ integration with LocalStack.

Getting started

This guide walks you through creating an autoscale setting targeting an App Service plan.

Launch LocalStack using your preferred method. For more information, see Introduction to LocalStack for Azure. Once the container is running, enable Azure CLI interception by running:

azlocal start-interception

This command points the az CLI away from the public Azure management REST API and toward the LocalStack for Azure emulator API. To revert this configuration, run:

azlocal stop-interception

This reconfigures the az CLI to send commands to the official Azure management REST API.

Create a resource group

Create a resource group to hold all resources created in this guide:

az group create --name rg-autoscale-demo --location westeurope

Output

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-autoscale-demo",
  "location": "eastus",
  "name": "rg-autoscale-demo",
  "properties": { "provisioningState": "Succeeded" },
  "type": "Microsoft.Resources/resourceGroups"
}

Create an App Service plan

Create an App Service plan to use as the autoscale target:

az appservice plan create \
  --name my-plan \
  --resource-group rg-autoscale-demo \
  --sku S1 \
  --is-linux

Output

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-autoscale-demo/providers/Microsoft.Web/serverfarms/my-plan",
  "kind": "linux",
  "location": "eastus",
  "name": "my-plan",
  "resourceGroup": "rg-autoscale-demo",
  "sku": { "capacity": 1, "name": "B1", "tier": "Basic" },
  "type": "Microsoft.Web/serverfarms"
...
}

Create an autoscale setting

Create an autoscale setting linked to the App Service plan:

az monitor autoscale create \
  --name my-autoscale \
  --resource-group rg-autoscale-demo \
  --resource my-plan \
  --resource-type Microsoft.Web/serverfarms \
  --min-count 1 \
  --max-count 5 \
  --count 2

Output

{
  "enabled": true,
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-autoscale-demo/providers/microsoft.insights/autoscalesettings/my-autoscale",
  "name": "my-autoscale",
  "profiles": [
    {
      "capacity": { "default": "2", "maximum": "5", "minimum": "1" },
      "name": "default",
      "rules": []
    }
  ],
  "resourceGroup": "rg-autoscale-demo",
  "targetResourceUri": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-autoscale-demo/providers/Microsoft.Web/serverfarms/my-plan",
  "type": "Microsoft.Insights/autoscaleSettings"
...
}

Add a scale-out rule

Add a scale-out rule that increases the instance count when average CPU usage rises above 70%:

az monitor autoscale rule create \
  --autoscale-name my-autoscale \
  --resource-group rg-autoscale-demo \
  --scale out 1 \
  --condition "CpuPercentage > 70 avg 5m"

Output

{
  "metricTrigger": {
    "metricName": "CpuPercentage",
    "operator": "GreaterThan",
    "statistic": "Average",
    "threshold": 70.0,
    "timeAggregation": "Average",
    "timeGrain": "PT1M",
    "timeWindow": "PT5M"
  },
  "scaleAction": {
    "cooldown": "PT5M",
    "direction": "Increase",
    "type": "ChangeCount",
    "value": "1"
  }
}

Show and list autoscale settings

Retrieve the details of the autoscale setting and list all settings in the resource group:

az monitor autoscale show \
  --name my-autoscale \
  --resource-group rg-autoscale-demo

Output

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-autoscale-demo/providers/microsoft.insights/autoscalesettings/my-autoscale",
  "name": "my-autoscale",
  "profiles": [
    {
      "capacity": { "default": "2", "maximum": "5", "minimum": "1" },
      "name": "default",
      "rules": [
        {
          "metricTrigger": { "metricName": "CpuPercentage", "operator": "GreaterThan", "threshold": 70.0, ... },
          "scaleAction": { "direction": "Increase", "type": "ChangeCount", "value": "1" }
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "resourceGroup": "rg-autoscale-demo",
  "targetResourceUri": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-autoscale-demo/providers/Microsoft.Web/serverfarms/my-plan",
  "type": "Microsoft.Insights/autoscaleSettings"
...
}

Then list all autoscale settings in the resource group:

az monitor autoscale list \
  --resource-group rg-autoscale-demo

Output

[
  {
    "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/rg-autoscale-demo/providers/microsoft.insights/autoscalesettings/my-autoscale",
    "name": "my-autoscale",
    "resourceGroup": "rg-autoscale-demo",
    "type": "Microsoft.Insights/autoscaleSettings"
  }
]

Delete and verify

Delete the resource and confirm it no longer appears in the list:

az monitor autoscale delete \
  --name my-autoscale \
  --resource-group rg-autoscale-demo

Then list all autoscale settings to confirm the resource group is now empty:

az monitor autoscale list --resource-group rg-autoscale-demo

Output

[]

Features

• Autoscale setting lifecycle: Create, read, list, update, and delete autoscale settings.
• Profile configuration: Define default, fixed date, and recurring schedule profiles.
• Scale rules: Add metric-based scale-out and scale-in rules per profile.
• Capacity bounds: Define minimum, maximum, and default instance counts.
• Notification configuration: Attach email and webhook notifications on scale events (stored, not dispatched).
• Resource targeting: Attach autoscale settings to any scalable resource ID.

Limitations

• No scaling actions: Instance counts are not changed by LocalStack. Scale-out and scale-in rules are stored but never executed.
• No metric evaluation: CPU, memory, and custom metric conditions in scale rules are not evaluated.
• No scale history: az monitor autoscale history list is not supported.
• No notifications dispatched: Email and webhook scale notifications are stored but not sent.

Samples

Explore end-to-end examples in the LocalStack for Azure Samples repository.

API Coverage

Operation ▲	Implemented ▼

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