When the new maximum memory size becomes less than the current memory size, I think it is not the libvirt client but the each driver that decides the behavior (reject the operation or shrink the current memory size). Signed-off-by: Taku Izumi <izumi.taku(a)jp.fujitsu.com&gt; --- tools/virsh.c | 10 +--------- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 9 deletions(-) Index: libvirt/tools/virsh.c =================================================================== --- libvirt.orig/tools/virsh.c +++ libvirt/tools/virsh.c @@ -3030,15 +3030,7 @@ cmdSetmaxmem(vshControl *ctl, const vshC if (virDomainSetMaxMemory(dom, kilobytes) != 0) { vshError(ctl, "%s", _("Unable to change MaxMemorySize")); - virDomainFree(dom); - return FALSE; - } - - if (kilobytes < info.memory) { - if (virDomainSetMemory(dom, kilobytes) != 0) { - vshError(ctl, "%s", _("Unable to shrink current MemorySize")); - ret = FALSE; - } + ret = FALSE; } virDomainFree(dom);