diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_main.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_main.c
index bc3eff7bbedc..5a3efd9f9de0 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_main.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_main.c
@@ -7840,9 +7840,17 @@ static void *ixgbe_fwd_add(struct net_device *pdev, struct net_device *vdev)
 {
 	struct ixgbe_fwd_adapter *fwd_adapter = NULL;
 	struct ixgbe_adapter *adapter = netdev_priv(pdev);
+	int used_pools = adapter->num_vfs + adapter->num_rx_pools;
 	unsigned int limit;
 	int pool, err;
 
+	/* Hardware has a limited number of available pools. Each VF, and the
+	 * PF require a pool. Check to ensure we don't attempt to use more
+	 * then the available number of pools.
+	 */
+	if (used_pools >= IXGBE_MAX_VF_FUNCTIONS)
+		return ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
+
 #ifdef CONFIG_RPS
 	if (vdev->num_rx_queues != vdev->num_tx_queues) {
 		netdev_info(pdev, "%s: Only supports a single queue count for TX and RX\n",
diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_sriov.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_sriov.c
index c14d4d89672f..706fc69aa0c5 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_sriov.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ixgbe/ixgbe_sriov.c
@@ -250,13 +250,15 @@ static int ixgbe_pci_sriov_enable(struct pci_dev *dev, int num_vfs)
 	if (err)
 		return err;
 
-	/* While the SR-IOV capability structure reports total VFs to be
-	 * 64 we limit the actual number that can be allocated to 63 so
-	 * that some transmit/receive resources can be reserved to the
-	 * PF.  The PCI bus driver already checks for other values out of
-	 * range.
+	/* While the SR-IOV capability structure reports total VFs to be 64,
+	 * we have to limit the actual number allocated based on two factors.
+	 * First, we reserve some transmit/receive resources for the PF.
+	 * Second, VMDQ also uses the same pools that SR-IOV does. We need to
+	 * account for this, so that we don't accidentally allocate more VFs
+	 * than we have available pools. The PCI bus driver already checks for
+	 * other values out of range.
 	 */
-	if (num_vfs > IXGBE_MAX_VFS_DRV_LIMIT)
+	if ((num_vfs + adapter->num_rx_pools) > IXGBE_MAX_VF_FUNCTIONS)
 		return -EPERM;
 
 	adapter->num_vfs = num_vfs;