diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index a2cc5193..1a57b9f4 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -491,7 +491,7 @@ nova_qemu_group: kvm
 
 # Define the following variable to drop a replacement
 # file for /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf
-#qemu_conf_dict: {}
+qemu_conf_dict: {}
 
 ## Tunable overrides
 nova_nova_conf_overrides: {}
diff --git a/tasks/drivers/kvm/nova_compute_kvm.yml b/tasks/drivers/kvm/nova_compute_kvm.yml
index c03036fe..b27aed8c 100644
--- a/tasks/drivers/kvm/nova_compute_kvm.yml
+++ b/tasks/drivers/kvm/nova_compute_kvm.yml
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@
     group: "root"
     mode: "0600"
   when:
-    - qemu_conf_dict is defined
+    - _nova_qemu_conf | length > 0
       or nova_network_type == 'calico'
   notify: Restart libvirt-bin
   tags:
diff --git a/templates/qemu.conf.j2 b/templates/qemu.conf.j2
index 6e513567..914afec2 100644
--- a/templates/qemu.conf.j2
+++ b/templates/qemu.conf.j2
@@ -15,8 +15,7 @@ cgroup_device_acl = [
 ]
 {% endif %}
 
-{% if qemu_conf_dict is defined %}
-{% for key, value in qemu_conf_dict.items() %}
+
+{% for key, value in _nova_qemu_conf.items() %}
 {{ key }} = {{ value }}
 {% endfor %}
-{% endif %}
diff --git a/vars/main.yml b/vars/main.yml
index ebfa11c0..cfb8f5b6 100644
--- a/vars/main.yml
+++ b/vars/main.yml
@@ -104,3 +104,13 @@ _nova_scheduler_filters: |-
   {%   set filters = default_filters %}
   {% endif %}
   {{ filters + nova_scheduler_extra_filters }}
+
+_qemu_default_conf_dict: |-
+  {% set qemu_dict = {} %}
+  {% if nova_rbd_inuse or nova_cinder_rbd_inuse %}
+  {%   set _ = qemu_dict.update({'max_files': '32768'}) %}
+  {%   set _ = qemu_dict.update({'max_processes': '131072'}) %}
+  {% endif %}
+  {{ qemu_dict }}
+
+_nova_qemu_conf: "{{ _qemu_default_conf_dict | combine(qemu_conf_dict) }}"