diff --git a/include/libvirt/libvirt.h.in b/include/libvirt/libvirt.h.in
index 716f7af99b..3c6a54ac36 100644
--- a/include/libvirt/libvirt.h.in
+++ b/include/libvirt/libvirt.h.in
@@ -219,9 +219,12 @@ struct _virNodeInfo {
     unsigned long memory;/* memory size in kilobytes */
     unsigned int cpus;  /* the number of active CPUs */
     unsigned int mhz;   /* expected CPU frequency */
-    unsigned int nodes; /* the number of NUMA cell, 1 for uniform mem access */
-    unsigned int sockets;/* number of CPU socket per node */
-    unsigned int cores; /* number of core per socket */
+    unsigned int nodes; /* the number of NUMA cell, 1 for unusual NUMA
+                           topologies or uniform memory access; check
+                           capabilities XML for the actual NUMA topology */
+    unsigned int sockets;/* number of CPU sockets per node if nodes > 1,
+                            total number of CPU sockets otherwise */
+    unsigned int cores; /* number of cores per socket */
     unsigned int threads;/* number of threads per core */
 };
 
diff --git a/src/nodeinfo.c b/src/nodeinfo.c
index 9be2a02f55..acd3188472 100644
--- a/src/nodeinfo.c
+++ b/src/nodeinfo.c
@@ -305,6 +305,16 @@ int linuxNodeInfoCPUPopulate(FILE *cpuinfo,
         return -1;
     }
 
+    /* nodeinfo->sockets is supposed to be a number of sockets per NUMA node,
+     * however if NUMA nodes are not composed of whole sockets, we just lie
+     * about the number of NUMA nodes and force apps to check capabilities XML
+     * for the actual NUMA topology.
+     */
+    if (nodeinfo->sockets % nodeinfo->nodes == 0)
+        nodeinfo->sockets /= nodeinfo->nodes;
+    else
+        nodeinfo->nodes = 1;
+
     return 0;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/xen/xend_internal.c b/src/xen/xend_internal.c
index 44501950ac..6ce0c3fe7d 100644
--- a/src/xen/xend_internal.c
+++ b/src/xen/xend_internal.c
@@ -2497,12 +2497,21 @@ sexpr_to_xend_node_info(const struct sexpr *root, virNodeInfoPtr info)
         if (procs == 0) /* Sanity check in case of Xen bugs in futures..*/
             return (-1);
         info->sockets = nr_cpus / procs;
-        /* Should already be fine, but for further sanity make
-         * sure we have at least one socket
-         */
-        if (info->sockets == 0)
-            info->sockets = 1;
     }
+
+    /* On systems where NUMA nodes are not composed of whole sockets either Xen
+     * provided us wrong number of sockets per node or we computed the wrong
+     * number in the compatibility code above. In such case, we compute the
+     * correct number of sockets on the host, lie about the number of NUMA
+     * nodes, and force apps to check capabilities XML for the actual NUMA
+     * topology.
+     */
+    if (info->nodes * info->sockets * info->cores * info->threads
+        != info->cpus) {
+        info->nodes = 1;
+        info->sockets = info->cpus / (info->cores * info->threads);
+    }
+
     return (0);
 }