1. A method comprising steps of: dividing multiple distinct virtual machines in a data center into two or more equivalence classes based on a signature corresponding to an update that can be applied to a virtual machine in an offline, online and/or manual mode, wherein the signature comprises a representation of all files of a virtual machine that are impacted by the update that can be applied to a virtual machine in an offline, online and/or manual mode, and wherein each of the two or more equivalence classes comprises a set of two or more of the multiple distinct virtual machines that have identical content in the signature corresponding to the update that can be applied to a virtual: machine in an offline, online and/or manual mode; automatically creating a virtual machine manifest for a first virtual machine of the multiple virtual machines based on one or more file system changes during the update that can be applied to a virtual machine in an offline, online and/or manual mode for the first virtual machine, wherein said manifest is applicable to each additional virtual machine in the same equivalence class as the first virtual machine, and wherein said automatically creating the manifest comprises: taking a snapshot of the first virtual machine before the update that can be applied to a virtual machine in an offline, online and/or manual mode is applied to the first virtual machine; performing an image diff between the snapshot and the updated first virtual machine after the update that can be applied to a virtual machine in an offline, online and/or manual mode is applied to the first virtual machine; and creating a first patch for each of one or more noted differences between the snapshot and the updated first virtual machine, wherein the patch transforms the first virtual machine in the snapshot to the updated first virtual machine; converting the update on a live virtual machine into a second patch for each dormant virtual machine in the same equivalence class via implementation of a background logging mechanism; and bundling the first and second patches into a collection, wherein the collection of patches represents the virtual machine manifest; and applying the virtual machine :manifest for the first virtual machine to the remaining multiple virtual machines in the same equivalence class to automatically update the remaining multiple virtual machines in the same equivalence class; wherein the steps are carried out by at least one computer device.