diff --git a/tools/virt-host-validate-common.c b/tools/virt-host-validate-common.c
index dd41fd44ca33e4255a0fba28ee905237de40a1a1..dd1c414f96531ded3692896cf125710b6250e925 100644
--- a/tools/virt-host-validate-common.c
+++ b/tools/virt-host-validate-common.c
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 #ifdef HAVE_MNTENT_H
 # include <mntent.h>
 #endif /* HAVE_MNTENT_H */
+#include <sys/stat.h>
 
 #include "virutil.h"
 #include "viralloc.h"
@@ -354,3 +355,67 @@ int virHostValidateCGroupController(const char *hvname,
         return -1;
     return 0;
 }
+
+int virHostValidateIOMMU(const char *hvname,
+                         virHostValidateLevel level)
+{
+    struct stat sb;
+    const char *bootarg = NULL;
+    bool isAMD = false, isIntel = false;
+
+    if (virHostValidateHasCPUFlag("vmx"))
+        isIntel = true;
+    else if (virHostValidateHasCPUFlag("svm"))
+        isAMD = true;
+    else
+        /* XXX PPC/ARM/etc support */
+        return 0;
+
+    virHostMsgCheck(hvname, "%s", _("for device assignment IOMMU support"));
+
+    if (isIntel) {
+        if (access("/sys/firmware/acpi/tables/DMAR", F_OK) == 0) {
+            virHostMsgPass();
+            bootarg = "intel_iommu=on";
+        } else {
+            virHostMsgFail(level,
+                           "No ACPI DMAR table found, IOMMU either "
+                           "disabled in BIOS or not supported by this "
+                           "hardware platform");
+            return -1;
+        }
+    } else if (isAMD) {
+        if (access("/sys/firmware/acpi/tables/IVRS", F_OK) == 0) {
+            virHostMsgPass();
+            bootarg = "iommu=pt iommu=1";
+        } else {
+            virHostMsgFail(level,
+                           "No ACPI IVRS table found, IOMMU either "
+                           "disabled in BIOS or not supported by this "
+                           "hardware platform");
+            return -1;
+        }
+    } else {
+        virHostMsgFail(level,
+                       "Unknown if this platform has IOMMU support");
+        return -1;
+    }
+
+
+    /* We can only check on newer kernels with iommu groups & vfio */
+    if (stat("/sys/kernel/iommu_groups", &sb) < 0)
+        return 0;
+
+    if (!S_ISDIR(sb.st_mode))
+        return 0;
+
+    virHostMsgCheck(hvname, "%s", _("if IOMMU is enabled by kernel"));
+    if (sb.st_nlink <= 2) {
+        virHostMsgFail(level,
+                       "IOMMU appears to be disabled in kernel. "
+                       "Add %s to kernel cmdline arguments", bootarg);
+        return -1;
+    }
+    virHostMsgPass();
+    return 0;
+}
diff --git a/tools/virt-host-validate-common.h b/tools/virt-host-validate-common.h
index 1547e22897eb51eb2f8f1f695bd694da30071784..d4c4759b0f539cf6fd23affe128bd6b40aa2dd24 100644
--- a/tools/virt-host-validate-common.h
+++ b/tools/virt-host-validate-common.h
@@ -70,4 +70,7 @@ extern int virHostValidateCGroupController(const char *hvname,
                                            virHostValidateLevel level,
                                            const char *config_name);
 
+extern int virHostValidateIOMMU(const char *hvname,
+                                virHostValidateLevel level);
+
 #endif /* __VIRT_HOST_VALIDATE_COMMON_H__ */
diff --git a/tools/virt-host-validate-qemu.c b/tools/virt-host-validate-qemu.c
index b0ae293be598cc906c6054875876f4d15c615795..044df65b02cfd74a0c90c8ad508af6d7725afc9a 100644
--- a/tools/virt-host-validate-qemu.c
+++ b/tools/virt-host-validate-qemu.c
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@
  */
 
 #include <config.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+
 #include "virt-host-validate-qemu.h"
 #include "virt-host-validate-common.h"
 
@@ -87,5 +89,9 @@ int virHostValidateQEMU(void)
                                         "BLK_CGROUP") < 0)
         ret = -1;
 
+    if (virHostValidateIOMMU("QEMU",
+                             VIR_HOST_VALIDATE_WARN) < 0)
+        ret = -1;
+
     return ret;
 }