diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
index 0d05f7ee57..51082ce5cc 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
@@ -2971,6 +2971,9 @@ qemuDomainObjPrivateXMLFormat(virBufferPtr buf,
                           virDomainChrTypeToString(priv->monConfig->type));
     }
 
+    if (priv->dbusDaemonRunning)
+        virBufferAddLit(buf, "<dbusDaemon/>\n");
+
     if (priv->namespaces) {
         ssize_t ns = -1;
 
@@ -3756,6 +3759,8 @@ qemuDomainObjPrivateXMLParse(xmlXPathContextPtr ctxt,
         goto error;
     }
 
+    priv->dbusDaemonRunning = virXPathBoolean("boolean(./dbusDaemon)", ctxt) > 0;
+
     if ((node = virXPathNode("./namespaces", ctxt))) {
         xmlNodePtr next;