In a distributed computing environment that includes hosts which each execute a VMM, with each VMM supporting execution of one or more VMs, administering a the VMs may include: assigning, by a VMM manager, the VMMs of the distributed computing environment to a logical tree topology, including assigning one of the VMMs as a root VMM of the tree topology; and executing, amongst the VMMs of the tree topology, an allgather operation, including: sending, by the root VMM, to other VMMs in the tree topology, a request to retrieve VMs supported by the other VMMs; pausing, by each of the other VMMs, a VM supported by the VMM; providing, by each of the other VMMs as a response to the root VMM's request, the paused VM; and broadcasting, by the root VM to the other VMMs as a set of VMs, the received VMs.