An example method of placing resources in domains in a virtualized computing system is described. A host cluster includes a virtualization layer executing on hardware platforms of the hosts. The method includes: determining, at a virtualization management server, definitions of the domains and resource groups, each of the domains including a plurality of placement targets, each of the resource groups including a plurality of the resources; receiving, at the virtualization management server from the user, affinity/anti-affinity rules that control placement of the resource groups within the domains; and placing, by the virtualization management server, the resource groups within the domains based on the affinity/anti-affinity rules.