In Windows Azure: What are web role, worker role and VM role?

Question

The application I work on contains a web role: it\'s a simple web application. I needed to host the application in Windows Azure, so I created a web role. I actually want

Answer 1

I ran across this SO question/answer several days ago and I found the answers provided a bit over my head (I'm new at Azure and Web). I found this summary in the Azure fundamentals tonight which I thought was a good high level overview of the core differences between the worker and web roles:

The main difference between the two is that an instance of a web role runs IIS, while an instance of a worker role does not. Both are managed in the same way, however, and it's common for an application to use both. For example, a web role instance might accept requests from users, then pass them to a worker role instance for processing. To scale your application up or down, you can request that Windows Azure create more instances of either role or shut down existing instances. And similar to Windows Azure Virtual Machines, you're charged only for the time that each web or worker role instance is running.

If you're new at Azure development I highly recommend reading the full article here: Intro to Windows Azure

I hope this helps someone as much as it helped turn the light bulb on for me.