diff --git a/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/kvm.pm b/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/kvm.pm
index 384d63b47..04a95cf0a 100644
--- a/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/kvm.pm
+++ b/xCAT-server/lib/xcat/plugins/kvm.pm
@@ -326,7 +326,13 @@ sub get_filepath_by_url { #at the end of the day, the libvirt storage api gives
             #  4) qemu-img was so much more transparent and easy to figure out than this
             #  additionally, when mastering a powered down node, we should rebase the node to be a cow clone of the master it just spawned
         } else {
-            my $vol = $poolobj->create_volume("<volume><name>".$desiredname."</name><target><format type='$format'/></target><capacity>".getUnits($create,"G",1)."</capacity><allocation>1</allocation></volume>");
+	    my $vol;
+	    if ($format eq 'raw') { #skip allocation specification for now
+	       #currently, LV can have reduced allocation, but *cannot* grow.....
+               $vol = $poolobj->create_volume("<volume><name>".$desiredname."</name><target><format type='$format'/></target><capacity>".getUnits($create,"G",1)."</capacity></volume>");
+	    } else {
+            	$vol = $poolobj->create_volume("<volume><name>".$desiredname."</name><target><format type='$format'/></target><capacity>".getUnits($create,"G",1)."</capacity><allocation>0</allocation></volume>");
+	    }
             if ($vol) { return $vol->get_path(); }
         }
     } else {