diff --git a/m4/virt-sanlock.m4 b/m4/virt-sanlock.m4
index c7c0186f86..d2a607d045 100644
--- a/m4/virt-sanlock.m4
+++ b/m4/virt-sanlock.m4
@@ -46,6 +46,13 @@ AC_DEFUN([LIBVIRT_CHECK_SANLOCK],[
         [whether sanlock supports sanlock_inq_lockspace])
     fi
 
+    AC_CHECK_LIB([sanlock_client], [sanlock_add_lockspace_timeout],
+                 [sanlock_add_lockspace_timeout=yes], [sanlock_add_lockspace_timeout=no])
+    if test "x$sanlock_add_lockspace_timeout" = "xyes" ; then
+      AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([HAVE_SANLOCK_ADD_LOCKSPACE_TIMEOUT], 1,
+        [whether Sanlock supports sanlock_add_lockspace_timeout])
+    fi
+
     CPPFLAGS="$old_cppflags"
     LIBS="$old_libs"
   fi
diff --git a/src/locking/libvirt_sanlock.aug b/src/locking/libvirt_sanlock.aug
index a78a4445c0..88435902d2 100644
--- a/src/locking/libvirt_sanlock.aug
+++ b/src/locking/libvirt_sanlock.aug
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ module Libvirt_sanlock =
              | int_entry "host_id"
              | bool_entry "require_lease_for_disks"
              | bool_entry "ignore_readonly_and_shared_disks"
+             | int_entry "io_timeout"
              | str_entry "user"
              | str_entry "group"
    let comment = [ label "#comment" . del /#[ \t]*/ "# " .  store /([^ \t\n][^\n]*)?/ . del /\n/ "\n" ]
diff --git a/src/locking/lock_driver_sanlock.c b/src/locking/lock_driver_sanlock.c
index e052875e25..3069b82f5f 100644
--- a/src/locking/lock_driver_sanlock.c
+++ b/src/locking/lock_driver_sanlock.c
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ struct _virLockManagerSanlockDriver {
     int hostID;
     bool autoDiskLease;
     char *autoDiskLeasePath;
+    unsigned int io_timeout;
 
     /* under which permissions does sanlock run */
     uid_t user;
@@ -151,6 +152,10 @@ static int virLockManagerSanlockLoadConfig(const char *configFile)
     else
         driver->requireLeaseForDisks = !driver->autoDiskLease;
 
+    p = virConfGetValue(conf, "io_timeout");
+    CHECK_TYPE("io_timeout", VIR_CONF_ULONG);
+    if (p) driver->io_timeout = p->l;
+
     p = virConfGetValue(conf, "user");
     CHECK_TYPE("user", VIR_CONF_STRING);
     if (p) {
@@ -338,7 +343,17 @@ static int virLockManagerSanlockSetupLockspace(void)
      * or we can fallback to polling.
      */
  retry:
-    if ((rv = sanlock_add_lockspace(&ls, 0)) < 0) {
+#ifdef HAVE_SANLOCK_ADD_LOCKSPACE_TIMEOUT
+    rv = sanlock_add_lockspace_timeout(&ls, 0, driver->io_timeout);
+#else
+    if (driver->io_timeout) {
+        virReportError(VIR_ERR_CONFIG_UNSUPPORTED, "%s",
+                       _("unable to use io_timeout with this version of sanlock"));
+        goto error;
+    }
+    rv = sanlock_add_lockspace(&ls, 0);
+#endif
+    if (rv < 0) {
         if (-rv == EINPROGRESS && --retries) {
 #ifdef HAVE_SANLOCK_INQ_LOCKSPACE
             /* we have this function which blocks until lockspace change the
@@ -404,6 +419,7 @@ static int virLockManagerSanlockInit(unsigned int version,
     driver->requireLeaseForDisks = true;
     driver->hostID = 0;
     driver->autoDiskLease = false;
+    driver->io_timeout = 0;
     driver->user = (uid_t) -1;
     driver->group = (gid_t) -1;
     if (VIR_STRDUP(driver->autoDiskLeasePath, LOCALSTATEDIR "/lib/libvirt/sanlock") < 0) {
diff --git a/src/locking/sanlock.conf b/src/locking/sanlock.conf
index e5566efec8..3a1a51c5f9 100644
--- a/src/locking/sanlock.conf
+++ b/src/locking/sanlock.conf
@@ -53,6 +53,13 @@
 #
 #require_lease_for_disks = 1
 
+#
+# Sanlock is able to kill qemu processes on IO timeout. By its internal
+# implementation, the current default is 80 seconds. If you need to adjust
+# the value change the following variable. Value of zero means use the
+# default sanlock timeout.
+#io_timeout = 0
+
 #
 # The combination of user and group under which the sanlock
 # daemon runs. Libvirt will chown created files (like
diff --git a/src/locking/test_libvirt_sanlock.aug.in b/src/locking/test_libvirt_sanlock.aug.in
index ef98ea6374..7f66f8192b 100644
--- a/src/locking/test_libvirt_sanlock.aug.in
+++ b/src/locking/test_libvirt_sanlock.aug.in
@@ -6,5 +6,6 @@ module Test_libvirt_sanlock =
 { "disk_lease_dir" = "/var/lib/libvirt/sanlock" }
 { "host_id" = "1" }
 { "require_lease_for_disks" = "1" }
+{ "io_timeout" = "0" }
 { "user" = "root" }
 { "group" = "root" }