diff --git a/tools/libxl/libxl.c b/tools/libxl/libxl.c
index d38d0c76ca..1366177fd3 100644
--- a/tools/libxl/libxl.c
+++ b/tools/libxl/libxl.c
@@ -4815,7 +4815,7 @@ retry_transaction:
     }
 
     rc = xc_domain_set_pod_target(ctx->xch, domid,
-            new_target_memkb / 4, NULL, NULL, NULL);
+            (new_target_memkb + LIBXL_MAXMEM_CONSTANT) / 4, NULL, NULL, NULL);
     if (rc != 0) {
         LIBXL__LOG_ERRNO(ctx, LIBXL__LOG_ERROR,
                 "xc_domain_set_pod_target domid=%d, memkb=%d "
diff --git a/tools/libxl/libxl_dom.c b/tools/libxl/libxl_dom.c
index b514377352..8019f4ee36 100644
--- a/tools/libxl/libxl_dom.c
+++ b/tools/libxl/libxl_dom.c
@@ -486,6 +486,7 @@ int libxl__build_post(libxl__gc *gc, uint32_t domid,
     xs_transaction_t t;
     char **ents;
     int i, rc;
+    int64_t mem_target_fudge;
 
     if (info->num_vnuma_nodes && !info->num_vcpu_soft_affinity) {
         rc = set_vnuma_affinity(gc, domid, info);
@@ -518,11 +519,17 @@ int libxl__build_post(libxl__gc *gc, uint32_t domid,
         }
     }
 
+    mem_target_fudge =
+        (info->type == LIBXL_DOMAIN_TYPE_HVM &&
+         info->max_memkb > info->target_memkb)
+        ? LIBXL_MAXMEM_CONSTANT : 0;
+
     ents = libxl__calloc(gc, 12 + (info->max_vcpus * 2) + 2, sizeof(char *));
     ents[0] = "memory/static-max";
     ents[1] = GCSPRINTF("%"PRId64, info->max_memkb);
     ents[2] = "memory/target";
-    ents[3] = GCSPRINTF("%"PRId64, info->target_memkb - info->video_memkb);
+    ents[3] = GCSPRINTF("%"PRId64, info->target_memkb - info->video_memkb
+                        - mem_target_fudge);
     ents[4] = "memory/videoram";
     ents[5] = GCSPRINTF("%"PRId64, info->video_memkb);
     ents[6] = "domid";