diff --git a/kernel/rcu/tree_stall.h b/kernel/rcu/tree_stall.h
index c0b8c458d8a6..b8c9744ad595 100644
--- a/kernel/rcu/tree_stall.h
+++ b/kernel/rcu/tree_stall.h
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
  * Author: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.ibm.com>
  */
 
+#include <linux/kvm_para.h>
+
 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 //
 // Controlling CPU stall warnings, including delay calculation.
@@ -525,6 +527,14 @@ static void check_cpu_stall(struct rcu_data *rdp)
 	    (READ_ONCE(rnp->qsmask) & rdp->grpmask) &&
 	    cmpxchg(&rcu_state.jiffies_stall, js, jn) == js) {
 
+		/*
+		 * If a virtual machine is stopped by the host it can look to
+		 * the watchdog like an RCU stall. Check to see if the host
+		 * stopped the vm.
+		 */
+		if (kvm_check_and_clear_guest_paused())
+			return;
+
 		/* We haven't checked in, so go dump stack. */
 		print_cpu_stall();
 		if (rcu_cpu_stall_ftrace_dump)
@@ -534,6 +544,14 @@ static void check_cpu_stall(struct rcu_data *rdp)
 		   ULONG_CMP_GE(j, js + RCU_STALL_RAT_DELAY) &&
 		   cmpxchg(&rcu_state.jiffies_stall, js, jn) == js) {
 
+		/*
+		 * If a virtual machine is stopped by the host it can look to
+		 * the watchdog like an RCU stall. Check to see if the host
+		 * stopped the vm.
+		 */
+		if (kvm_check_and_clear_guest_paused())
+			return;
+
 		/* They had a few time units to dump stack, so complain. */
 		print_other_cpu_stall(gs2);
 		if (rcu_cpu_stall_ftrace_dump)