diff --git a/docs/formatdomain.html.in b/docs/formatdomain.html.in
index 8c03ebb053..5e2b65ab10 100644
--- a/docs/formatdomain.html.in
+++ b/docs/formatdomain.html.in
@@ -1815,7 +1815,7 @@
           <dt><code>rawio</code> attribute
           <span class="since">since 0.9.10</span></dt>
             <dd>
-            Indicates whether the disk is needs rawio capability; valid
+            Indicates whether the disk needs rawio capability. Valid
             settings are "yes" or "no" (default is "no"). If any one disk
             in a domain has rawio='yes', rawio capability will be enabled
             for all disks in the domain (because, in the case of QEMU, this
@@ -2925,7 +2925,7 @@
 <pre>
   ...
   &lt;devices&gt;
-    &lt;hostdev mode='subsystem' type='scsi'&gt;
+    &lt;hostdev mode='subsystem' type='scsi' sgio='filtered' rawio='yes'&gt;
       &lt;source&gt;
         &lt;adapter name='scsi_host0'/&gt;
         &lt;address type='scsi' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/&gt;
@@ -2984,7 +2984,13 @@
             (<span class="since">since 1.0.6</span>) attribute indicates
             whether the kernel will filter unprivileged SG_IO commands for
             the disk, valid settings are "filtered" or "unfiltered".
-            The default is "filtered".
+            The default is "filtered". The optional <code>rawio</code>
+            (<span class="since">since 1.2.9</span>) attribute indicates
+            whether the lun needs the rawio capability. Valid settings are
+            "yes" or "no". See the rawio description within the
+            <a href="#elementsDisks">disk</a> section.
+            If a disk lun in the domain already has the rawio capability,
+            then this setting not required.
           </dd>
         </dl>
       </dd>
diff --git a/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng b/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng
index 19dc82f16e..36bc184cc3 100644
--- a/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng
+++ b/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng
@@ -1252,9 +1252,7 @@
             </choice>
           </attribute>
           <optional>
-            <attribute name="rawio">
-              <ref name="virYesNo"/>
-            </attribute>
+            <ref name="rawIO"/>
           </optional>
           <optional>
             <attribute name="sgio">
@@ -3577,6 +3575,9 @@
         </choice>
       </attribute>
     </optional>
+    <optional>
+      <ref name="rawIO"/>
+    </optional>
     <element name="source">
       <choice>
         <group>  <!-- scsi_host adapter -->
@@ -4937,4 +4938,9 @@
       </optional>
     </element>
   </define>
+  <define name="rawIO">
+    <attribute name="rawio">
+      <ref name="virYesNo"/>
+    </attribute>
+  </define>
 </grammar>
diff --git a/src/conf/domain_conf.c b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
index c240c8365f..bb4a4cb9b3 100644
--- a/src/conf/domain_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
@@ -4504,6 +4504,7 @@ virDomainHostdevDefParseXMLSubsys(xmlNodePtr node,
     xmlNodePtr sourcenode;
     char *managed = NULL;
     char *sgio = NULL;
+    char *rawio = NULL;
     char *backendStr = NULL;
     int backend;
     int ret = -1;
@@ -4521,6 +4522,7 @@ virDomainHostdevDefParseXMLSubsys(xmlNodePtr node,
     }
 
     sgio = virXMLPropString(node, "sgio");
+    rawio = virXMLPropString(node, "rawio");
 
     /* @type is passed in from the caller rather than read from the
      * xml document, because it is specified in different places for
@@ -4572,6 +4574,21 @@ virDomainHostdevDefParseXMLSubsys(xmlNodePtr node,
         }
     }
 
+    if (rawio) {
+        if (def->source.subsys.type != VIR_DOMAIN_HOSTDEV_SUBSYS_TYPE_SCSI) {
+            virReportError(VIR_ERR_XML_ERROR, "%s",
+                           _("rawio is only supported for scsi host device"));
+            goto error;
+        }
+
+        if ((scsisrc->rawio = virTristateBoolTypeFromString(rawio)) <= 0) {
+            virReportError(VIR_ERR_XML_ERROR,
+                           _("unknown hostdev rawio setting '%s'"),
+                           rawio);
+            goto error;
+        }
+    }
+
     switch (def->source.subsys.type) {
     case VIR_DOMAIN_HOSTDEV_SUBSYS_TYPE_PCI:
         if (virDomainHostdevSubsysPCIDefParseXML(sourcenode, def, flags) < 0)
@@ -4611,6 +4628,7 @@ virDomainHostdevDefParseXMLSubsys(xmlNodePtr node,
  error:
     VIR_FREE(managed);
     VIR_FREE(sgio);
+    VIR_FREE(rawio);
     VIR_FREE(backendStr);
     return ret;
 }
@@ -17804,6 +17822,12 @@ virDomainHostdevDefFormat(virBufferPtr buf,
             scsisrc->sgio)
             virBufferAsprintf(buf, " sgio='%s'",
                               virDomainDeviceSGIOTypeToString(scsisrc->sgio));
+
+        if (def->source.subsys.type == VIR_DOMAIN_HOSTDEV_SUBSYS_TYPE_SCSI &&
+            scsisrc->rawio) {
+            virBufferAsprintf(buf, " rawio='%s'",
+                              virTristateBoolTypeToString(scsisrc->rawio));
+        }
     }
     virBufferAddLit(buf, ">\n");
     virBufferAdjustIndent(buf, 2);
diff --git a/src/conf/domain_conf.h b/src/conf/domain_conf.h
index afd9943af1..47a18516d2 100644
--- a/src/conf/domain_conf.h
+++ b/src/conf/domain_conf.h
@@ -439,6 +439,7 @@ typedef virDomainHostdevSubsysSCSI *virDomainHostdevSubsysSCSIPtr;
 struct _virDomainHostdevSubsysSCSI {
     int protocol; /* enum virDomainHostdevSCSIProtocolType */
     int sgio; /* enum virDomainDeviceSGIO */
+    int rawio; /* enum virTristateBool */
     union {
         virDomainHostdevSubsysSCSIHost host;
         virDomainHostdevSubsysSCSIiSCSI iscsi;
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-hostdev-scsi-rawio.xml b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-hostdev-scsi-rawio.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..69fdde37d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-hostdev-scsi-rawio.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+<domain type='qemu'>
+  <name>QEMUGuest2</name>
+  <uuid>c7a5fdbd-edaf-9466-926a-d65c16db1809</uuid>
+  <memory unit='KiB'>219100</memory>
+  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>219100</currentMemory>
+  <vcpu placement='static'>1</vcpu>
+  <os>
+    <type arch='i686' machine='pc'>hvm</type>
+    <boot dev='hd'/>
+  </os>
+  <clock offset='utc'/>
+  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
+  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
+  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
+  <devices>
+    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu</emulator>
+    <disk type='block' device='disk'>
+      <source dev='/dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest2'/>
+      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
+      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
+    </disk>
+    <controller type='scsi' index='0' model='virtio-scsi'/>
+    <controller type='usb' index='0'/>
+    <controller type='ide' index='0'/>
+    <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'/>
+    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='scsi' managed='yes' sgio='unfiltered' rawio='yes'>
+      <source>
+        <adapter name='scsi_host0'/>
+        <address bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
+      </source>
+      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='4' unit='8'/>
+    </hostdev>
+    <memballoon model='virtio'/>
+  </devices>
+</domain>
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
index 675403a1ff..56a371ea38 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
@@ -369,6 +369,7 @@ mymain(void)
     DO_TEST("disk-copy_on_read");
     DO_TEST("hostdev-scsi-shareable");
     DO_TEST("hostdev-scsi-sgio");
+    DO_TEST("hostdev-scsi-rawio");
 
     DO_TEST_DIFFERENT("hostdev-scsi-autogen-address");