diff --git a/src/AzManagers.jl b/src/AzManagers.jl
index ba85bc12..f52a04fe 100644
--- a/src/AzManagers.jl
+++ b/src/AzManagers.jl
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@ mutable struct AzManager <: ClusterManager
     scalesets::Vector{ScaleSet}
     pending_up::Channel{TCPSocket}
     pending_down::Dict{ScaleSet,Vector{String}}
+    vm_failure_count::Int
     port::UInt16
     server::Sockets.TCPServer
     task_add::Task
@@ -152,6 +153,7 @@ function azmanager!(session, nretry, verbose)
     _manager.port,_manager.server = listenany(getipaddr(), 9000)
     _manager.pending_up = Channel{TCPSocket}(32)
     _manager.pending_down = Dict{ScaleSet,Vector{Int}}()
+    _manager.vm_failure_count = 0
     _manager.scalesets = Vector{ScaleSet}[]
     _manager.task_add = @async add_pending_connections()
     _manager.task_process = @async process_pending_connections()
@@ -177,6 +179,7 @@ function scaleset_monitor()
             sleep(10)
             delete_empty_scalesets()
             delete_pending_down_vms()
+            heal()
         end
     catch e
         @error "scaleset monitor error:"
@@ -186,6 +189,7 @@ end
 
 scalesets(manager::AzManager) = isdefined(manager, :scalesets) ? manager.scalesets : ScaleSet[]
 pending_down(manager::AzManager) = isdefined(manager, :pending_down) ? manager.pending_down : Dict{ScaleSet,Vector{String}}()
+vm_failure_count(manager::AzManager) = isdefined(manager, :vm_failure_count) ? manager.vm_failure_count : 0
 
 function delete_empty_scalesets()
     manager = azmanager()
@@ -216,6 +220,38 @@ function delete_pending_down_vms()
     end
 end
 
+function heal()
+    manager = azmanager()
+    _vm_failure_count = vm_failure_count(manager)
+    if _vm_failure_count > 0
+        @info "there are vm failures, count=$_vm_failure_count"
+        active_vms = filter!(!isempty, [isa(worker, Distributed.Worker) ? worker.config.userdata : Dict() for worker in Distributed.PGRP.workers])
+        orphan_vms = Dict{ScaleSet,Vector{Dict}}()
+
+        norphans = 0
+        for scaleset in scalesets(manager)
+            vms = scaleset_listvms(manager, scaleset.subscriptionid, scaleset.resourcegroup, scaleset.scalesetname, manager.nretry, manager.verbose)
+            _active_vms = filter!(vm->(vm["subscriptionid"]==scaleset.subscriptionid && vm["resourcegroup"]==scaleset.resourcegroup && vm["scalesetname"]==scaleset.scalesetname), active_vms)
+            orphan_vms[scaleset] = filter!(vm->vm["name"] ∉ [_active_vm["name"] for _active_vm in _active_vms], vms)
+            norphans += length(orphan_vms[scaleset])
+        end
+
+        @info "number of orphan vms=$norphans"
+        if norphans <= _vm_failure_count
+            @info "number of orphans is less than or equal to the number of failures, recovering..."
+            for scaleset in scalesets(manager)
+                ids = [orphan_vm["instanceid"] for orphan_vm in orphan_vms[scaleset]]
+                delete_vms(manager, scaleset.subscriptionid, scaleset.resourcegroup, scaleset.scalesetname, ids, manager.nretry, manager.verbose)
+                add_vms(manager, scaleset.subscriptionid, scaleset.resourcegroup, scaleset.scalesetname, length(ids), manager.nretry, manager.verbose)
+                manager.vm_failure_count -= length(ids)
+                if manager.vm_failure_count < 0
+                    @error "something went wrong"
+                end
+            end
+        end
+    end
+end
+
 function delete_scalesets()
     manager = azmanager()
     _scalesets = scalesets(manager)
@@ -232,6 +268,7 @@ function add_pending_connections()
                 push!(manager.pending_up, s)
             end
         catch
+            manager.vm_failures += 1
             @error "AzManagers, error adding pending connection"
             for (exc, bt) in Base.catch_stack()
                 showerror(stderr, exc, bt)
@@ -1293,6 +1330,23 @@ function delete_vms(manager::AzManager, subscriptionid, resourcegroup, scalesetn
         json(body))
 end
 
+function add_vms(manager::AzManager, subscriptionid, resourcegroup, scalesetname, δ, nretry, verbose)
+    r = @retry nretry azrequest(
+        "GET",
+        verbose,
+        "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/$subscriptionid/resourceGroups/$resourcegroup/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/$scalesetname?api-version=2020-06-01",
+        ["Authorization"=>"Bearer $(token(manager.session))"])
+    body = JSON.parse(String(r.body))
+    body["sku"]["capacity"] += δ
+
+    @retry nretry azrequest(
+        "PUT",
+        verbose,
+        "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/$subscriptionid/resourceGroups/$resourcegroup/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachineScaleSets/$scalesetname?api-version=2020-06-01",
+        ["Authorization"=>"Bearer $(token(manager.session))", "Content-Type"=>"application/json"],
+        json(body))
+end
+
 #
 # detached service and REST API
 #