A configuration is generated that enables Availability Management Framework (AMF) to manage virtual machines (VMs) and support hardware redundancy for each of service groups (SGs). Each component service instance (CST) is configured to represent one or more of the VMs to be managed by AMF. Configuration attributes are set to associate each VM with one CSI, such that the VMs to be hosted on a same physical host are associated with different CSIs of a same service instance. Service units (SUs) of different SGs are configured such that each SU is hosted by any one VM on the same physical host, while the different SUs of a same SG are mapped to the VMs hosted on different physical hosts. The configuration enables the AMF to manage an application formed by the SGs in a virtualized environment in a same way as in a non-virtualized environment without modification to the application.