diff --git a/agent/conf/agent.properties b/agent/conf/agent.properties
index 9174da7fd7b..b88da3621cd 100644
--- a/agent/conf/agent.properties
+++ b/agent/conf/agent.properties
@@ -279,6 +279,11 @@ hypervisor.type=kvm
 # If this parameter is used, property host.overcommit.mem.mb must be set to 0.
 #host.reserved.mem.mb=1024
 
+# Number of CPU cores to subtract from advertised available cores.
+# These are reserved for system activity, or otherwise share host CPU resources with
+# CloudStack VM allocation.
+# host.reserved.cpu.count = 0
+
 # The model of Watchdog timer to present to the Guest.
 # For all models refer to the libvirt documentation.
 #vm.watchdog.model=i6300esb
diff --git a/agent/src/main/java/com/cloud/agent/properties/AgentProperties.java b/agent/src/main/java/com/cloud/agent/properties/AgentProperties.java
index 75248fb01bf..610c5be759f 100644
--- a/agent/src/main/java/com/cloud/agent/properties/AgentProperties.java
+++ b/agent/src/main/java/com/cloud/agent/properties/AgentProperties.java
@@ -502,6 +502,15 @@ public class AgentProperties{
      */
     public static final Property<Integer> HOST_RESERVED_MEM_MB = new Property<>("host.reserved.mem.mb", 1024);
 
+    /**
+     * How many host CPUs to reserve for non-allocation.<br>
+     * This can be used to set aside CPU cores on the host for other tasks, such as running hyperconverged storage<br>
+     * processes, etc.
+     * Data type: Integer.<br>
+     * Default value: <code>0</code>
+     */
+    public static final Property<Integer> HOST_RESERVED_CPU_CORE_COUNT = new Property<>("host.reserved.cpu.count", 0);
+
     /**
      * The model of Watchdog timer to present to the Guest.<br>
      * For all models refer to the libvirt documentation.<br>
diff --git a/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/main/java/com/cloud/hypervisor/kvm/resource/LibvirtComputingResource.java b/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/main/java/com/cloud/hypervisor/kvm/resource/LibvirtComputingResource.java
index 16cccb0150b..6bbafcacef2 100644
--- a/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/main/java/com/cloud/hypervisor/kvm/resource/LibvirtComputingResource.java
+++ b/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/main/java/com/cloud/hypervisor/kvm/resource/LibvirtComputingResource.java
@@ -460,6 +460,8 @@ public class LibvirtComputingResource extends ServerResourceBase implements Serv
 
     private long dom0OvercommitMem;
 
+    private int dom0MinCpuCores;
+
     protected int cmdsTimeout;
     protected int stopTimeout;
     protected CPUStat cpuStat = new CPUStat();
@@ -1063,6 +1065,8 @@ public class LibvirtComputingResource extends ServerResourceBase implements Serv
         // Reserve 1GB unless admin overrides
         dom0MinMem = ByteScaleUtils.mebibytesToBytes(AgentPropertiesFileHandler.getPropertyValue(AgentProperties.HOST_RESERVED_MEM_MB));
 
+        dom0MinCpuCores = AgentPropertiesFileHandler.getPropertyValue(AgentProperties.HOST_RESERVED_CPU_CORE_COUNT);
+
         // Support overcommit memory for host if host uses ZSWAP, KSM and other memory
         // compressing technologies
         dom0OvercommitMem = ByteScaleUtils.mebibytesToBytes(AgentPropertiesFileHandler.getPropertyValue(AgentProperties.HOST_OVERCOMMIT_MEM_MB));
@@ -3540,7 +3544,7 @@ public class LibvirtComputingResource extends ServerResourceBase implements Serv
     @Override
     public StartupCommand[] initialize() {
 
-        final KVMHostInfo info = new KVMHostInfo(dom0MinMem, dom0OvercommitMem, manualCpuSpeed);
+        final KVMHostInfo info = new KVMHostInfo(dom0MinMem, dom0OvercommitMem, manualCpuSpeed, dom0MinCpuCores);
 
         String capabilities = String.join(",", info.getCapabilities());
         if (dpdkSupport) {
@@ -3548,7 +3552,7 @@ public class LibvirtComputingResource extends ServerResourceBase implements Serv
         }
 
         final StartupRoutingCommand cmd =
-                new StartupRoutingCommand(info.getCpus(), info.getCpuSpeed(), info.getTotalMemory(), info.getReservedMemory(), capabilities, hypervisorType,
+                new StartupRoutingCommand(info.getAllocatableCpus(), info.getCpuSpeed(), info.getTotalMemory(), info.getReservedMemory(), capabilities, hypervisorType,
                         RouterPrivateIpStrategy.HostLocal);
         cmd.setCpuSockets(info.getCpuSockets());
         fillNetworkInformation(cmd);
diff --git a/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/main/java/org/apache/cloudstack/utils/linux/KVMHostInfo.java b/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/main/java/org/apache/cloudstack/utils/linux/KVMHostInfo.java
index 807b2541fd3..d160cbfac3b 100644
--- a/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/main/java/org/apache/cloudstack/utils/linux/KVMHostInfo.java
+++ b/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/main/java/org/apache/cloudstack/utils/linux/KVMHostInfo.java
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ public class KVMHostInfo {
 
     private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(KVMHostInfo.class);
 
-    private int cpus;
+    private int totalCpus;
+    private int allocatableCpus;
     private int cpusockets;
     private long cpuSpeed;
     private long totalMemory;
@@ -58,16 +59,25 @@ public class KVMHostInfo {
 
     private static String cpuInfoFreqFileName = "/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/base_frequency";
 
-    public KVMHostInfo(long reservedMemory, long overCommitMemory, long manualSpeed) {
+    public KVMHostInfo(long reservedMemory, long overCommitMemory, long manualSpeed, int reservedCpus) {
         this.cpuSpeed = manualSpeed;
         this.reservedMemory = reservedMemory;
         this.overCommitMemory = overCommitMemory;
         this.getHostInfoFromLibvirt();
         this.totalMemory = new MemStat(this.getReservedMemory(), this.getOverCommitMemory()).getTotal();
+        this.allocatableCpus = totalCpus - reservedCpus;
+        if (allocatableCpus < 1) {
+            LOGGER.warn(String.format("Aggressive reserved CPU config leaves no usable CPUs for VMs! Total system CPUs: %d, Reserved: %d, Allocatable: %d", totalCpus, reservedCpus, allocatableCpus));
+            allocatableCpus = 0;
+        }
     }
 
-    public int getCpus() {
-        return this.cpus;
+    public int getTotalCpus() {
+        return this.totalCpus;
+    }
+
+    public int getAllocatableCpus() {
+        return this.allocatableCpus;
     }
 
     public int getCpuSockets() {
@@ -189,7 +199,7 @@ public class KVMHostInfo {
             if (hosts.nodes > 0) {
                 this.cpusockets = hosts.sockets * hosts.nodes;
             }
-            this.cpus = hosts.cpus;
+            this.totalCpus = hosts.cpus;
 
             final LibvirtCapXMLParser parser = new LibvirtCapXMLParser();
             parser.parseCapabilitiesXML(capabilities);
diff --git a/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/test/java/org/apache/cloudstack/utils/linux/KVMHostInfoTest.java b/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/test/java/org/apache/cloudstack/utils/linux/KVMHostInfoTest.java
index 92cece6ae06..3b5422f564c 100644
--- a/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/test/java/org/apache/cloudstack/utils/linux/KVMHostInfoTest.java
+++ b/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/test/java/org/apache/cloudstack/utils/linux/KVMHostInfoTest.java
@@ -73,8 +73,36 @@ public class KVMHostInfoTest {
             Mockito.when(conn.close()).thenReturn(0);
             int manualSpeed = 500;
 
-            KVMHostInfo kvmHostInfo = new KVMHostInfo(10, 10, manualSpeed);
+            KVMHostInfo kvmHostInfo = new KVMHostInfo(10, 10, manualSpeed, 0);
             Assert.assertEquals(kvmHostInfo.getCpuSpeed(), manualSpeed);
         }
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void reservedCpuCoresTest() throws Exception {
+        if (!System.getProperty("os.name").equals("Linux")) {
+            return;
+        }
+        try (MockedStatic<LibvirtConnection> ignored = Mockito.mockStatic(LibvirtConnection.class)) {
+            Connect conn = Mockito.mock(Connect.class);
+            NodeInfo nodeInfo = Mockito.mock(NodeInfo.class);
+            nodeInfo.cpus = 10;
+            String capabilitiesXml = "<capabilities></capabilities>";
+
+            Mockito.when(LibvirtConnection.getConnection()).thenReturn(conn);
+            Mockito.when(conn.nodeInfo()).thenReturn(nodeInfo);
+            Mockito.when(conn.getCapabilities()).thenReturn(capabilitiesXml);
+            Mockito.when(conn.close()).thenReturn(0);
+            int manualSpeed = 500;
+
+            KVMHostInfo kvmHostInfo = new KVMHostInfo(10, 10, 100, 2);
+            Assert.assertEquals("reserve two CPU cores", 8, kvmHostInfo.getAllocatableCpus());
+
+            kvmHostInfo = new KVMHostInfo(10, 10, 100, 0);
+            Assert.assertEquals("no reserve CPU core setting", 10, kvmHostInfo.getAllocatableCpus());
+
+            kvmHostInfo = new KVMHostInfo(10, 10, 100, 12);
+            Assert.assertEquals("Misconfigured/too large CPU reserve", 0, kvmHostInfo.getAllocatableCpus());
+        }
+    }
 }