diff --git a/hw/arm/virt.c b/hw/arm/virt.c
index 84c2444fff..688d873690 100644
--- a/hw/arm/virt.c
+++ b/hw/arm/virt.c
@@ -2718,6 +2718,7 @@ static void virt_machine_class_init(ObjectClass *oc, void *data)
     hc->unplug_request = virt_machine_device_unplug_request_cb;
     hc->unplug = virt_machine_device_unplug_cb;
     mc->nvdimm_supported = true;
+    mc->smp_props.clusters_supported = true;
     mc->auto_enable_numa_with_memhp = true;
     mc->auto_enable_numa_with_memdev = true;
     mc->default_ram_id = "mach-virt.ram";
diff --git a/qemu-options.hx b/qemu-options.hx
index ec90505d84..ba3ae6a42a 100644
--- a/qemu-options.hx
+++ b/qemu-options.hx
@@ -277,6 +277,16 @@ SRST
 
         -smp 16,sockets=2,dies=2,cores=2,threads=2,maxcpus=16
 
+    The following sub-option defines a CPU topology hierarchy (2 sockets
+    totally on the machine, 2 clusters per socket, 2 cores per cluster,
+    2 threads per core) for ARM virt machines which support sockets/clusters
+    /cores/threads. Some members of the option can be omitted but their values
+    will be automatically computed:
+
+    ::
+
+        -smp 16,sockets=2,clusters=2,cores=2,threads=2,maxcpus=16
+
     Historically preference was given to the coarsest topology parameters
     when computing missing values (ie sockets preferred over cores, which
     were preferred over threads), however, this behaviour is considered