Software, hardware, and virtual network resources are anti-collocated on a networked computing environment. A computerized network-management system receives a list of resources to be installed on components of a network and a set of anti-collocation rules that identify combinations of resources that may not be installed concurrently on the same network component. Each resource is assigned a priority and the resources are organized into groups as a function of these priorities. The groups are processed sequentially in priority order, and a color is assigned to each resource in each group. Any resource not constrained by an anti-collocation rule is assigned a default “most popular” color. Each constrained resource is assigned a color that is not already used by any other resource with which the constrained resource is anti-collocated. The resources in each group are then installed in order of color, with the more populous colors being installed first.