diff --git a/lib/librte_vhost/iotlb.c b/lib/librte_vhost/iotlb.c
index b74cc6a78f..72cd27df8f 100644
--- a/lib/librte_vhost/iotlb.c
+++ b/lib/librte_vhost/iotlb.c
@@ -50,6 +50,9 @@ struct vhost_iotlb_entry {
 
 #define IOTLB_CACHE_SIZE 2048
 
+static void
+vhost_user_iotlb_cache_random_evict(struct vhost_virtqueue *vq);
+
 static void
 vhost_user_iotlb_pending_remove_all(struct vhost_virtqueue *vq)
 {
@@ -95,9 +98,11 @@ vhost_user_iotlb_pending_insert(struct vhost_virtqueue *vq,
 
 	ret = rte_mempool_get(vq->iotlb_pool, (void **)&node);
 	if (ret) {
-		RTE_LOG(INFO, VHOST_CONFIG,
-				"IOTLB pool empty, clear pending misses\n");
-		vhost_user_iotlb_pending_remove_all(vq);
+		RTE_LOG(DEBUG, VHOST_CONFIG, "IOTLB pool empty, clear entries\n");
+		if (!TAILQ_EMPTY(&vq->iotlb_pending_list))
+			vhost_user_iotlb_pending_remove_all(vq);
+		else
+			vhost_user_iotlb_cache_random_evict(vq);
 		ret = rte_mempool_get(vq->iotlb_pool, (void **)&node);
 		if (ret) {
 			RTE_LOG(ERR, VHOST_CONFIG, "IOTLB pool still empty, failure\n");
@@ -186,8 +191,11 @@ vhost_user_iotlb_cache_insert(struct vhost_virtqueue *vq, uint64_t iova,
 
 	ret = rte_mempool_get(vq->iotlb_pool, (void **)&new_node);
 	if (ret) {
-		RTE_LOG(DEBUG, VHOST_CONFIG, "IOTLB pool empty, evict one entry\n");
-		vhost_user_iotlb_cache_random_evict(vq);
+		RTE_LOG(DEBUG, VHOST_CONFIG, "IOTLB pool empty, clear entries\n");
+		if (!TAILQ_EMPTY(&vq->iotlb_list))
+			vhost_user_iotlb_cache_random_evict(vq);
+		else
+			vhost_user_iotlb_pending_remove_all(vq);
 		ret = rte_mempool_get(vq->iotlb_pool, (void **)&new_node);
 		if (ret) {
 			RTE_LOG(ERR, VHOST_CONFIG, "IOTLB pool still empty, failure\n");