Start Virtual Machine & Stop Virtual Machine
These actions start or stop all virtual machines within a resource group. They wait for the virtual machines to start running or stop before completing.
They are both designed to be idempotent, meaning they will not fail if the virtual machine is already running or stopped.
The Stop Virtual Machine action is integrated with the Start Virtual Machine action and features a functionality, which when enabled, makes it stop only these virtual machines that the Start Virtual Machine action started during a particular plan execution. This feature is Stop Only Started, you can find it in Advanced Action Settings.
The diagram below shows the Start Virtual Machine action operation with the Stop Only Started feature deactivated and activated. When you deactivate the option, the action stops all virtual machines. When you enable the option, the virtual machines running before executing the Start Virtual Machine action do not stop. Only the one that started during the plan execution stops again.
If a plan doesn't have the Start Virtual Machine action set up, or if the Start Virtual Machine action doesn't precede the Stop Virtual Machine action in the action list, the Stop Only Started feature will not stop any virtual machines.
For Azure machines, the stop action will cause them to be in the deallocated state.