Skip to content

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
  • Filter disclosure - Reports how many VMs its filters hid, and how to see them
  • 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

What the Default Listing Hides

azlin list shows running VMs only by default. It reports what it left out.

azlin list

Total: 2 VMs | 2 running | 4 hidden (stopped/deallocated)
Hidden VMs still bill for attached storage. Run 'azlin list --all' to include them.

The Total: line gains a clause for each filter that dropped rows — the default running-only filter, --tag, or --vm-pattern:

Total: 0 VMs | 0 running | 2 excluded by --vm-pattern | 4 hidden (stopped/deallocated)

When nothing was dropped the footer is exactly what it always was, and the remedy line is not printed at all.

This matters for cost, not just for completeness. A deallocated VM stops billing for compute but keeps its attached managed disks, and those disks bill at full rate indefinitely. Before this disclosure existed, a resource group could hold terabytes of Premium SSD attached to machines the default listing never mentioned.

To see them:

azlin list --all

--all and -a are different flags

--all includes stopped and deallocated VMs in the current resource group. -a / --show-all-vms scans all resource groups and is still running-only. Reaching for -a when you meant --all gives you a wider listing with the same blind spot. Combine them (azlin list --all -a) for every VM in every resource group.

See: Filter Disclosure for the JSON and CSV representations, the exact counter semantics, and scripting recipes.

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:

  1. Use specific resource groups: 

    azlin list --rg team-resources

  2. Filter by tags: 

    azlin list --tag project=active

  3. Disable quota checking: 

    azlin list --no-quota

  4. 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

Read the footer first. If a filter dropped rows, the listing says so and tells you which filter did it:

Total: 0 VMs | 0 running | 2 excluded by --vm-pattern | 4 hidden (stopped/deallocated)

That line distinguishes the two cases that used to look identical — an empty resource group, and a resource group whose VMs were all filtered out. Match the clause to the fix:

Footer clause Cause Fix
{n} excluded by --tag The tag filter matched nothing Drop --tag, or check the tag with azlin list --all
{n} excluded by --vm-pattern The name pattern matched nothing Widen or drop --vm-pattern
{n} hidden (stopped/deallocated) The VMs exist but are stopped or deallocated azlin list --all
No extra clause on the Total: line Nothing was filtered — the resource group really is empty, or you are pointed at the wrong one Check the resource group and your Azure login 
# Nothing was hidden, so check where you are pointed
azlin list --rg <your-rg>
az account show

# Look in every resource group (still running-only — add --all for stopped VMs)
azlin list -a
azlin list -a --all

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"

Source Code

Last updated: 2025-11-24