diff --git a/src/conf/storage_conf.c b/src/conf/storage_conf.c
index 0b91956c4ae2519b4b00b0e6976b30ee3550d0e8..69321952f09aa08e8a21c94c45ca9a24b505339a 100644
--- a/src/conf/storage_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/storage_conf.c
@@ -1370,6 +1370,7 @@ virStorageVolDefParseXML(virStoragePoolDefPtr pool,
         unit = virXPathString("string(./allocation/@unit)", ctxt);
         if (virStorageSize(unit, allocation, &ret->target.allocation) < 0)
             goto error;
+        ret->target.has_allocation = true;
     } else {
         ret->target.allocation = ret->target.capacity;
     }
diff --git a/src/storage/storage_driver.c b/src/storage/storage_driver.c
index 1d42f24618179405be799a7652fd71986c2d6e9b..ae6a511a132d1930afd81025f448de3149d33f2f 100644
--- a/src/storage/storage_driver.c
+++ b/src/storage/storage_driver.c
@@ -2039,6 +2039,13 @@ storageVolCreateXMLFrom(virStoragePoolPtr obj,
     if (newvol->target.capacity < origvol->target.capacity)
         newvol->target.capacity = origvol->target.capacity;
 
+    /* If the allocation was not provided in the XML, then use capacity
+     * as it's specifically documented "If omitted when creating a volume,
+     * the  volume will be fully allocated at time of creation.". This
+     * is especially important for logical volume creation. */
+    if (!newvol->target.has_allocation)
+        newvol->target.allocation = newvol->target.capacity;
+
     if (!backend->buildVolFrom) {
         virReportError(VIR_ERR_NO_SUPPORT,
                        "%s", _("storage pool does not support"
diff --git a/src/util/virstoragefile.c b/src/util/virstoragefile.c
index 4f44e05de5d2bc5514f8dbab0d0819d83f0a64fe..d4e61ca6aad3274476a45febd0369af6b78b1833 100644
--- a/src/util/virstoragefile.c
+++ b/src/util/virstoragefile.c
@@ -1835,6 +1835,7 @@ virStorageSourceCopy(const virStorageSource *src,
     ret->format = src->format;
     ret->capacity = src->capacity;
     ret->allocation = src->allocation;
+    ret->has_allocation = src->has_allocation;
     ret->physical = src->physical;
     ret->readonly = src->readonly;
     ret->shared = src->shared;
diff --git a/src/util/virstoragefile.h b/src/util/virstoragefile.h
index 17e12779c119de56c279e92eaad5b6e130205083..b88e71564a23df9ef1e75d7b4cd6b6d9dc5f85b7 100644
--- a/src/util/virstoragefile.h
+++ b/src/util/virstoragefile.h
@@ -260,6 +260,8 @@ struct _virStorageSource {
     unsigned long long capacity; /* in bytes, 0 if unknown */
     unsigned long long allocation; /* in bytes, 0 if unknown */
     unsigned long long physical; /* in bytes, 0 if unknown */
+    bool has_allocation; /* Set to true when provided in XML */
+
     size_t nseclabels;
     virSecurityDeviceLabelDefPtr *seclabels;