1. A method for placing virtual machines in a collection, the method comprising: determining, by a computing device, a plurality of equivalence sets of hosts prior to placing virtual machines in the collection, wherein hosts in an equivalence set of hosts are considered similar; selecting an equivalence set of hosts in the plurality of equivalence sets to place the virtual machines in the collection; and placing at least a portion of the virtual machines in the collection on one or more hosts in the selected equivalence set of hosts.