diff --git a/tools/virsh.c b/tools/virsh.c
index 265857d700d84fb72336c94875ee3209a38e7285..035482269b59213e9f507b9d2dc909489f3000f3 100644
--- a/tools/virsh.c
+++ b/tools/virsh.c
@@ -5752,7 +5752,7 @@ cmdSetvcpus(vshControl *ctl, const vshCmd *cmd)
     if (!(dom = vshCommandOptDomain(ctl, cmd, NULL)))
         return false;
 
-    if (vshCommandOptInt(cmd, "count", &count) < 0) {
+    if (vshCommandOptInt(cmd, "count", &count) < 0 || count <= 0) {
         vshError(ctl, "%s", _("Invalid number of virtual CPUs"));
         goto cleanup;
     }