diff --git a/doc/guides/prog_guide/vhost_lib.rst b/doc/guides/prog_guide/vhost_lib.rst
index 77af4d775..c77df338f 100644
--- a/doc/guides/prog_guide/vhost_lib.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/prog_guide/vhost_lib.rst
@@ -106,6 +106,14 @@ The following is an overview of some key Vhost API functions:
     Enabling this flag with these Qemu version results in Qemu being blocked
     when multiple queue pairs are declared.
 
+  - ``RTE_VHOST_USER_POSTCOPY_SUPPORT``
+
+    Postcopy live-migration support will be enabled when this flag is set.
+    It is disabled by default.
+
+    Enabling this flag should only be done when the calling application does
+    not pre-fault the guest shared memory, otherwise migration would fail.
+
 * ``rte_vhost_driver_set_features(path, features)``
 
   This function sets the feature bits the vhost-user driver supports. The
diff --git a/lib/librte_vhost/rte_vhost.h b/lib/librte_vhost/rte_vhost.h
index 9292c89c5..d280ac420 100644
--- a/lib/librte_vhost/rte_vhost.h
+++ b/lib/librte_vhost/rte_vhost.h
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ extern "C" {
 #define RTE_VHOST_USER_NO_RECONNECT	(1ULL << 1)
 #define RTE_VHOST_USER_DEQUEUE_ZERO_COPY	(1ULL << 2)
 #define RTE_VHOST_USER_IOMMU_SUPPORT	(1ULL << 3)
+#define RTE_VHOST_USER_POSTCOPY_SUPPORT		(1ULL << 4)
 
 /** Protocol features. */
 #ifndef VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_MQ
diff --git a/lib/librte_vhost/socket.c b/lib/librte_vhost/socket.c
index 3b0287a26..4c804b34a 100644
--- a/lib/librte_vhost/socket.c
+++ b/lib/librte_vhost/socket.c
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ struct vhost_user_socket {
 	uint64_t supported_features;
 	uint64_t features;
 
+	uint64_t protocol_features;
+
 	/*
 	 * Device id to identify a specific backend device.
 	 * It's set to -1 for the default software implementation.
@@ -735,7 +737,7 @@ rte_vhost_driver_get_protocol_features(const char *path,
 	did = vsocket->vdpa_dev_id;
 	vdpa_dev = rte_vdpa_get_device(did);
 	if (!vdpa_dev || !vdpa_dev->ops->get_protocol_features) {
-		*protocol_features = VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_FEATURES;
+		*protocol_features = vsocket->protocol_features;
 		goto unlock_exit;
 	}
 
@@ -748,7 +750,7 @@ rte_vhost_driver_get_protocol_features(const char *path,
 		goto unlock_exit;
 	}
 
-	*protocol_features = VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_FEATURES
+	*protocol_features = vsocket->protocol_features
 		& vdpa_protocol_features;
 
 unlock_exit:
@@ -867,11 +869,21 @@ rte_vhost_driver_register(const char *path, uint64_t flags)
 	vsocket->use_builtin_virtio_net = true;
 	vsocket->supported_features = VIRTIO_NET_SUPPORTED_FEATURES;
 	vsocket->features           = VIRTIO_NET_SUPPORTED_FEATURES;
+	vsocket->protocol_features  = VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_FEATURES;
 
-	/* Dequeue zero copy can't assure descriptors returned in order */
+	/*
+	 * Dequeue zero copy can't assure descriptors returned in order.
+	 * Also, it requires that the guest memory is populated, which is
+	 * not compatible with postcopy.
+	 */
 	if (vsocket->dequeue_zero_copy) {
 		vsocket->supported_features &= ~(1ULL << VIRTIO_F_IN_ORDER);
 		vsocket->features &= ~(1ULL << VIRTIO_F_IN_ORDER);
+
+		RTE_LOG(INFO, VHOST_CONFIG,
+			"Dequeue zero copy requested, disabling postcopy support\n");
+		vsocket->protocol_features &=
+			~(1ULL << VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_PAGEFAULT);
 	}
 
 	if (!(flags & RTE_VHOST_USER_IOMMU_SUPPORT)) {
@@ -879,6 +891,18 @@ rte_vhost_driver_register(const char *path, uint64_t flags)
 		vsocket->features &= ~(1ULL << VIRTIO_F_IOMMU_PLATFORM);
 	}
 
+	if (!(flags & RTE_VHOST_USER_POSTCOPY_SUPPORT)) {
+		vsocket->protocol_features &=
+			~(1ULL << VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_PAGEFAULT);
+	} else {
+#ifndef RTE_LIBRTE_VHOST_POSTCOPY
+		RTE_LOG(ERR, VHOST_CONFIG,
+			"Postcopy requested but not compiled\n");
+		ret = -1;
+		goto out_mutex;
+#endif
+	}
+
 	if ((flags & RTE_VHOST_USER_CLIENT) != 0) {
 		vsocket->reconnect = !(flags & RTE_VHOST_USER_NO_RECONNECT);
 		if (vsocket->reconnect && reconn_tid == 0) {
diff --git a/lib/librte_vhost/vhost_user.c b/lib/librte_vhost/vhost_user.c
index 0560f2f96..508228a3c 100644
--- a/lib/librte_vhost/vhost_user.c
+++ b/lib/librte_vhost/vhost_user.c
@@ -1322,7 +1322,11 @@ vhost_user_set_protocol_features(struct virtio_net **pdev,
 {
 	struct virtio_net *dev = *pdev;
 	uint64_t protocol_features = msg->payload.u64;
-	if (protocol_features & ~VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_FEATURES) {
+	uint64_t slave_protocol_features = 0;
+
+	rte_vhost_driver_get_protocol_features(dev->ifname,
+			&slave_protocol_features);
+	if (protocol_features & ~slave_protocol_features) {
 		RTE_LOG(ERR, VHOST_CONFIG,
 			"(%d) received invalid protocol features.\n",
 			dev->vid);
