The embodiment of the invention discloses a damping configuration method and device for a virtual synchronous machine, and the method comprises the steps: building a second-order switching period meanmodel of the virtual synchronous machine, and obtaining a first small signal model of an output current of the virtual synchronous machine, a small signal expression of output active power and a second small signal model of a swinging equation and a power angle equation; calculating a fourth-order function of output active power variation to load-side frequency variation according to the small signal expression, the first small signal model and the second small signal model; carrying out the inverse Laplace transformation of the fourth-order function during the jumping of the load-side frequency to obtain a response function of output active function; and solving extreme values of the response function to obtain a maximum value expression of the output active power. The method provided bythe invention is clear and effective, and brings convenience to the people for configuring damping of the virtual synchronous machine.