diff --git a/novaclient/v1_1/shell.py b/novaclient/v1_1/shell.py
index 77743deaa..b3fe46b1a 100644
--- a/novaclient/v1_1/shell.py
+++ b/novaclient/v1_1/shell.py
@@ -48,6 +48,11 @@ def _boot(cs, args, reservation_id=None, min_count=None, max_count=None):
     if not args.flavor:
         raise exceptions.CommandError("you need to specify a Flavor ID ")
 
+    if args.num_instances:
+        if args.num_instances <= 1:
+            raise exceptions.CommandError("num_instances should be > 1")
+        max_count = args.num_instances
+
     flavor = _find_flavor(cs, args.flavor)
 
     if args.image:
@@ -149,6 +154,11 @@ def _boot(cs, args, reservation_id=None, min_count=None, max_count=None):
      default=None,
      metavar='<image>',
      help="Image ID (see 'nova image-list'). ")
+@utils.arg('--num-instances',
+     default=None,
+     type=int,
+     metavar='<number>',
+     help="boot multi instances at a time")
 @utils.arg('--meta',
      metavar="<key=value>",
      action='append',
diff --git a/tests/v1_1/test_shell.py b/tests/v1_1/test_shell.py
index 12b13c907..de85a3e57 100644
--- a/tests/v1_1/test_shell.py
+++ b/tests/v1_1/test_shell.py
@@ -224,6 +224,24 @@ class ShellTest(utils.TestCase):
         cmd = 'boot some-server --image 1 --file /foo=%s' % invalid_file
         self.assertRaises(exceptions.CommandError, self.run_command, cmd)
 
+    def test_boot_num_instances(self):
+        self.run_command('boot --image 1 --flavor 1 --num-instances 3 server')
+        self.assert_called_anytime(
+            'POST', '/servers',
+            {
+                'server': {
+                    'flavorRef': '1',
+                    'name': 'server',
+                    'imageRef': '1',
+                    'min_count': 1,
+                    'max_count': 3,
+                }
+            })
+
+    def test_boot_invalid_num_instances(self):
+        cmd = 'boot --image 1 --flavor 1 --num-instances 1  server'
+        self.assertRaises(exceptions.CommandError, self.run_command, cmd)
+
     def test_flavor_list(self):
         self.run_command('flavor-list')
         self.assert_called('GET', '/flavors/aa1/os-extra_specs')