diff --git a/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c b/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c
index 341c3fa2c1..ab975ff566 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c
@@ -429,10 +429,40 @@ static int virtio_mem_set_block_state(VirtIOMEM *vmem, uint64_t start_gpa,
             return -EBUSY;
         }
         virtio_mem_notify_unplug(vmem, offset, size);
-    } else if (virtio_mem_notify_plug(vmem, offset, size)) {
-        /* Could be a mapping attempt resulted in memory getting populated. */
-        ram_block_discard_range(vmem->memdev->mr.ram_block, offset, size);
-        return -EBUSY;
+    } else {
+        int ret = 0;
+
+        if (vmem->prealloc) {
+            void *area = memory_region_get_ram_ptr(&vmem->memdev->mr) + offset;
+            int fd = memory_region_get_fd(&vmem->memdev->mr);
+            Error *local_err = NULL;
+
+            os_mem_prealloc(fd, area, size, 1, &local_err);
+            if (local_err) {
+                static bool warned;
+
+                /*
+                 * Warn only once, we don't want to fill the log with these
+                 * warnings.
+                 */
+                if (!warned) {
+                    warn_report_err(local_err);
+                    warned = true;
+                } else {
+                    error_free(local_err);
+                }
+                ret = -EBUSY;
+            }
+        }
+        if (!ret) {
+            ret = virtio_mem_notify_plug(vmem, offset, size);
+        }
+
+        if (ret) {
+            /* Could be preallocation or a notifier populated memory. */
+            ram_block_discard_range(vmem->memdev->mr.ram_block, offset, size);
+            return -EBUSY;
+        }
     }
     virtio_mem_set_bitmap(vmem, start_gpa, size, plug);
     return 0;
@@ -1108,6 +1138,7 @@ static void virtio_mem_instance_init(Object *obj)
 static Property virtio_mem_properties[] = {
     DEFINE_PROP_UINT64(VIRTIO_MEM_ADDR_PROP, VirtIOMEM, addr, 0),
     DEFINE_PROP_UINT32(VIRTIO_MEM_NODE_PROP, VirtIOMEM, node, 0),
+    DEFINE_PROP_BOOL(VIRTIO_MEM_PREALLOC_PROP, VirtIOMEM, prealloc, false),
     DEFINE_PROP_LINK(VIRTIO_MEM_MEMDEV_PROP, VirtIOMEM, memdev,
                      TYPE_MEMORY_BACKEND, HostMemoryBackend *),
     DEFINE_PROP_END_OF_LIST(),
diff --git a/include/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.h b/include/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.h
index a5dd6a493b..0ac7bcb3b6 100644
--- a/include/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.h
+++ b/include/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.h
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ OBJECT_DECLARE_TYPE(VirtIOMEM, VirtIOMEMClass,
 #define VIRTIO_MEM_REQUESTED_SIZE_PROP "requested-size"
 #define VIRTIO_MEM_BLOCK_SIZE_PROP "block-size"
 #define VIRTIO_MEM_ADDR_PROP "memaddr"
+#define VIRTIO_MEM_PREALLOC_PROP "prealloc"
 
 struct VirtIOMEM {
     VirtIODevice parent_obj;
@@ -62,6 +63,9 @@ struct VirtIOMEM {
     /* block size and alignment */
     uint64_t block_size;
 
+    /* whether to prealloc memory when plugging new blocks */
+    bool prealloc;
+
     /* notifiers to notify when "size" changes */
     NotifierList size_change_notifiers;