diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c b/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c
index 9b19629a02ba11c7785eefba0725cb82e71a5f24..a84fd479e7e0e6e62681e81856d5e73c31674c9f 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c
@@ -17000,6 +17000,8 @@ qemuDomainGetBlockIoTune(virDomainPtr dom,
     if (virDomainLiveConfigHelperMethod(caps, driver->xmlopt, vm, &flags,
                                         &persistentDef) < 0)
         goto endjob;
+    sa_assert((flags & VIR_DOMAIN_AFFECT_LIVE) ||
+              (flags & VIR_DOMAIN_AFFECT_CONFIG));
 
     if (flags & VIR_DOMAIN_AFFECT_LIVE) {
         /* If the VM is running, we can check if the current VM can use