diff --git a/ironic_python_agent/shell/write_image.sh b/ironic_python_agent/shell/write_image.sh
index 0a7804909..a89c68dfc 100755
--- a/ironic_python_agent/shell/write_image.sh
+++ b/ironic_python_agent/shell/write_image.sh
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@ sgdisk -Z $DEVICE
 
 log "Imaging $IMAGEFILE to $DEVICE"
 
-# limit the memory usage for qemu-img to 1 GiB
-ulimit -v 1048576
+# limit the memory usage for qemu-img to 2 GiB
+ulimit -v 2097152
 qemu-img convert -t directsync -O host_device $IMAGEFILE $DEVICE
 sync
 
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/up-qemuimg-mem-1536183a02b3a235.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/up-qemuimg-mem-1536183a02b3a235.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..149c80c97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/up-qemuimg-mem-1536183a02b3a235.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - |
+    Increase memory usage limit for ``qemu-img convert`` command to 2 GiB.
+    See `Story 2008667
+    <https://storyboard.openstack.org/#!/story/2008667>`_
+    for details.