1. A method, implemented by a computer system adapted to generate an Availability Management Framework (AMF) configuration for a service provider system in which service units of a service group are allocated to node groups and the node groups are allocated to physical nodes such that hardware redundancy for the service group is guaranteed, wherein each service unit is a unit of redundancy for services provided and protected by the service group, and each service unit includes one or more hardware components, software components, or a combination of hardware and software components, the method comprising the steps of: generating a node group set (NG set) of the node groups, wherein each node group includes a group of virtual machines and is mapped to a different host group of a set of host groups, wherein each host group includes one or more physical nodes, each of the one or more physical nodes belongs to a single host group from the set of host groups, wherein for each node group, the group of virtual machines belonging to that node group are hosted by the one or more physical nodes belonging to the host group mapped to that node group, and wherein a minimum number of physical nodes that are available to operate in the service provider system is determined based on a number of service units in a largest service group of a plurality of service groups in the AMF configuration; generating collocation and separation rules for the virtual machines to specify which ones of the virtual machines are collocated in a same node group and which ones of the virtual machines are separated by different node groups; and mapping each service unit of one of the service groups of the plurality of service groups to a different node group in the NG set to thereby guarantee hardware separation in the AMF configuration for different service units of the service group and for the virtual machines allocated to the different service units.