diff --git a/include/libzfs_impl.h b/include/libzfs_impl.h
index 36441ed7bb..75a7bc2490 100644
--- a/include/libzfs_impl.h
+++ b/include/libzfs_impl.h
@@ -131,6 +131,8 @@ typedef enum {
 	SHARED_SMB = 0x4
 } zfs_share_type_t;
 
+#define	CONFIG_BUF_MINSIZE	65536
+
 int zfs_error(libzfs_handle_t *, int, const char *);
 int zfs_error_fmt(libzfs_handle_t *, int, const char *, ...);
 void zfs_error_aux(libzfs_handle_t *, const char *, ...);
diff --git a/lib/libzfs/libzfs_import.c b/lib/libzfs/libzfs_import.c
index d09367e885..1e378321c6 100644
--- a/lib/libzfs/libzfs_import.c
+++ b/lib/libzfs/libzfs_import.c
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 /*
  * Copyright 2015 Nexenta Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
  * Copyright (c) 2005, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
- * Copyright (c) 2012 by Delphix. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2012, 2016 by Delphix. All rights reserved.
  * Copyright 2015 RackTop Systems.
  * Copyright (c) 2016, Intel Corporation.
  */
@@ -823,13 +823,14 @@ refresh_config(libzfs_handle_t *hdl, nvlist_t *config)
 {
 	nvlist_t *nvl;
 	zfs_cmd_t zc = {"\0"};
-	int err;
+	int err, dstbuf_size;
 
 	if (zcmd_write_conf_nvlist(hdl, &zc, config) != 0)
 		return (NULL);
 
-	if (zcmd_alloc_dst_nvlist(hdl, &zc,
-	    zc.zc_nvlist_conf_size * 2) != 0) {
+	dstbuf_size = MAX(CONFIG_BUF_MINSIZE, zc.zc_nvlist_conf_size * 4);
+
+	if (zcmd_alloc_dst_nvlist(hdl, &zc, dstbuf_size) != 0) {
 		zcmd_free_nvlists(&zc);
 		return (NULL);
 	}