Listing VMs¶

View and manage your Azure VMs with the azlin list command - fast, informative, and feature-rich VM inventory.

Quick Start¶

# List all running VMs in default resource group
azlin list

# Include stopped VMs
azlin list --all

# List with full VM names (no truncation)
azlin list --wide

Overview¶

The azlin list command provides a comprehensive view of your VMs with:

OS identification - Distro icon + name/version (e.g., 🟠 Ubuntu 25.10)
Real-time status - Power state, IP addresses, region
Resource details - VM size, vCPUs, memory
Quota information - Current usage vs. available quota
Tmux sessions - Active tmux sessions per VM
Session names - Custom labels for VMs
Tag filtering - Filter by Azure tags
Multi-context support - View VMs across multiple Azure contexts

Command Reference¶

azlin list [OPTIONS]

Display Options¶

Option	Description	Default
`--all`	Include stopped/deallocated VMs	Running only
`-w, --wide`	Prevent VM name truncation	Truncate to fit
`--show-quota / --no-quota`	Show Azure vCPU quota info	Enabled
`--show-tmux / --no-tmux`	Show active tmux sessions	Enabled

Filtering Options¶

Option	Description	Example
`--resource-group, --rg TEXT`	Specific resource group	`--rg production-rg`
`--tag TEXT`	Filter by tag (key or key=value)	`--tag env=dev`
`-a, --show-all-vms`	All VMs across all RGs (expensive)	`-a`

Multi-Context Options¶

Option	Description	Example
`--all-contexts`	List VMs across all contexts	`--all-contexts`
`--contexts TEXT`	Contexts matching glob pattern	`--contexts "prod*"`

Output Format¶

The default output shows:

SESSION          OS                STATUS    IP               REGION   CPU  Mem
🟠 my-project    Ubuntu 25.10      Running   20.51.23.145     eastus    32  64GB
🟠 backend-api   Ubuntu 22.04 LTS  Running   10.0.1.5 (Bast)  westus    16  32GB
🟠 model-train   Ubuntu 24.04 LTS  Running   20.14.7.89       eastus2   64  128GB

The OS column shows the detected operating system. The Session column includes an OS icon prefix (🟠 Ubuntu, 🪟 Windows, 🐧 generic Linux, 🔴 Debian, 🎩 RHEL).

With --wide flag, names are not truncated:

azlin list --wide

NAME                      STATUS    IP ADDRESS       REGION    SIZE    vCPUs
very-long-vm-name-dev-01  Running   20.51.23.145     eastus    l       32

Common Usage Patterns¶

Basic Listing¶

# Running VMs in default resource group
azlin list

# All VMs including stopped
azlin list --all

# VMs in specific resource group
azlin list --rg my-team-resources

Example output:

╭─────────────────┬─────────┬──────────────────┬─────────┬──────┬───────╮
│ Name            │ Status  │ IP Address       │ Region  │ Size │ vCPUs │
├─────────────────┼─────────┼──────────────────┼─────────┼──────┼───────┤
│ azlin-vm-45678  │ Running │ 20.51.23.145     │ eastus  │ l    │ 32    │
│ dev-vm          │ Running │ 10.0.1.5         │ westus  │ m    │ 16    │
│ test-vm         │ Stopped │ -                │ eastus  │ s    │ 2     │
╰─────────────────┴─────────┴──────────────────┴─────────┴──────┴───────╯

Quota: 50/100 vCPUs used (50.0%)

Filtering by Tags¶

# VMs with 'env' tag (any value)
azlin list --tag env

# VMs with specific tag value
azlin list --tag env=production

# VMs with project tag
azlin list --tag project=ml-pipeline

# Combine with --all to include stopped VMs
azlin list --tag team=backend --all

Example output:

╭──────────────┬─────────┬──────────────────┬─────────┬──────┬───────╮
│ Name         │ Status  │ IP Address       │ Region  │ Size │ vCPUs │
├──────────────┼─────────┼──────────────────┼─────────┼──────┼───────┤
│ prod-api-01  │ Running │ 20.51.23.145     │ eastus  │ m    │ 16    │
│ prod-api-02  │ Running │ 20.51.23.146     │ eastus  │ m    │ 16    │
│ prod-web-01  │ Running │ 20.51.23.147     │ westus  │ l    │ 32    │
╰──────────────┴─────────┴──────────────────┴─────────┴──────┴───────╯

Quota Monitoring¶

# Default view includes quota
azlin list

# Hide quota information
azlin list --no-quota

# Show only quota across all VMs
azlin list --all --no-tmux

Quota display:

Quota: 80/200 vCPUs used (40.0%)
Quota: 15/30 Standard_E family vCPUs (50.0%)

Quota Management

When quota is low, consider: - Stopping unused VMs with azlin stop - Using different VM families - Requesting quota increase via Azure Portal

See: Quota Management Guide

Tmux Session Information¶

# Default view includes tmux sessions
azlin list

# Hide tmux session info
azlin list --no-tmux

# Show session names
azlin list --show-tmux

Output with tmux:

╭──────────────────┬─────────┬──────────────┬─────────┬──────┬───────┬─────────────────╮
│ Name             │ Status  │ IP Address   │ Region  │ Size │ vCPUs │ Session         │
├──────────────────┼─────────┼──────────────┼─────────┼──────┼───────┼─────────────────┤
│ azlin-vm-12345   │ Running │ 20.51.23.145 │ eastus  │ l    │ 32    │ my-project (1)  │
│ dev-environment  │ Running │ 10.0.1.5     │ westus  │ m    │ 16    │ backend-api (2) │
╰──────────────────┴─────────┴──────────────┴─────────┴──────┴───────┴─────────────────╯

The number in parentheses shows active tmux sessions on that VM.

Multi-Context Listing¶

# List VMs across all contexts
azlin list --all-contexts

# List VMs from production contexts
azlin list --contexts "prod*"

# List VMs from dev contexts with specific tag
azlin list --contexts "*-dev" --tag environment=staging --all

Example output:

Context: production-east
╭──────────────┬─────────┬──────────────┬─────────╮
│ Name         │ Status  │ IP Address   │ Region  │
├──────────────┼─────────┼──────────────┼─────────┤
│ prod-api-01  │ Running │ 20.51.23.145 │ eastus  │
╰──────────────┴─────────┴──────────────┴─────────╯

Context: production-west
╭──────────────┬─────────┬──────────────┬─────────╮
│ Name         │ Status  │ IP Address   │ Region  │
├──────────────┼─────────┼──────────────┼─────────┤
│ prod-web-01  │ Running │ 20.14.7.89   │ westus  │
╰──────────────┴─────────┴──────────────┴─────────╯

See: Multi-Context Configuration

All VMs Across Subscription¶

# Scan ALL VMs in ALL resource groups (slow for large subscriptions)
azlin list --show-all-vms

# Short form
azlin list -a

Performance Impact

--show-all-vms scans every resource group in your subscription. This can take 30+ seconds for subscriptions with many resources. Use --rg for faster, targeted queries.

Advanced Usage¶

Combining Filters¶

# Production VMs that are running
azlin list --tag env=production --rg prod-rg

# All dev VMs including stopped
azlin list --tag env=dev --all

# Production contexts with team tag
azlin list --contexts "prod*" --tag team=platform --all

Wide Display for Long Names¶

# Full names without truncation
azlin list --wide

# Useful for scripting/parsing
azlin list --wide --no-quota --no-tmux | grep "Running"

Minimal Output¶

# Just names and status
azlin list --no-quota --no-tmux

# Include stopped VMs
azlin list --all --no-quota --no-tmux

Session Name Integration¶

List shows session names set via azlin session:

# Set session name on VM
azlin session azlin-vm-12345 my-project

# List shows session name
azlin list

Output:

╭──────────────────┬─────────┬──────────────┬─────────┬─────────────╮
│ Name             │ Status  │ IP Address   │ Region  │ Session     │
├──────────────────┼─────────┼──────────────┼─────────┼─────────────┤
│ azlin-vm-12345   │ Running │ 20.51.23.145 │ eastus  │ my-project  │
╰──────────────────┴─────────┴──────────────┴─────────┴─────────────╯

See: Session Management

Performance Optimization¶

For large VM fleets:

Use specific resource groups:
```
azlin list --rg team-resources
```
Filter by tags:
```
azlin list --tag project=active
```
Disable quota checking:
```
azlin list --no-quota
```
Context-specific queries:
```
azlin list --contexts "prod-east"
```

Scripting & Automation¶

The list command is designed for both human readability and script parsing:

# Get just VM names (no headers)
azlin list --no-quota --no-tmux | tail -n +2 | awk '{print $1}'

# Count running VMs
azlin list | grep "Running" | wc -l

# Find VMs by pattern
azlin list --wide | grep "ml-"

# Export to file
azlin list --all > vm-inventory.txt

Troubleshooting¶

No VMs Shown¶

# Check resource group
azlin list --rg <your-rg>

# Include stopped VMs
azlin list --all

# Check all resource groups
azlin list --show-all-vms

Quota Not Showing¶

# Explicitly enable quota
azlin list --show-quota

# Check Azure subscription access
az account show

Slow Performance¶

# Use specific resource group
azlin list --rg <specific-rg>

# Disable quota/tmux checks
azlin list --no-quota --no-tmux

# Avoid --show-all-vms for large subscriptions

Context Errors¶

# List available contexts
cat ~/.azlin/config.yaml

# Test specific context
azlin list --contexts "production"

azlin new - Create new VMs
azlin connect - Connect to VM
azlin status - Check VM status
azlin session - Manage session names
azlin tag - Manage VM tags

Source Code¶

Last updated: 2025-11-24

Listing VMs¶

Quick Start¶

Overview¶

Command Reference¶

Display Options¶

Filtering Options¶

Multi-Context Options¶

Output Format¶

Common Usage Patterns¶

Basic Listing¶

Filtering by Tags¶

Quota Monitoring¶

Tmux Session Information¶

Multi-Context Listing¶

All VMs Across Subscription¶

Advanced Usage¶

Combining Filters¶

Wide Display for Long Names¶

Minimal Output¶

Session Name Integration¶

Performance Optimization¶

Scripting & Automation¶

Troubleshooting¶

No VMs Shown¶

Quota Not Showing¶

Slow Performance¶

Context Errors¶

Related Commands¶

Source Code¶