diff --git a/nixos/modules/system/boot/systemd-nspawn.nix b/nixos/modules/system/boot/systemd-nspawn.nix
index f4fa09694537..4f538ccdbbe1 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/system/boot/systemd-nspawn.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/system/boot/systemd-nspawn.nix
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ in {
 
       environment.etc."systemd/nspawn".source = generateUnits "nspawn" units [] [];
 
+      systemd.targets."multi-user".wants = [ "machines.target "];
   };
 
 }
diff --git a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/containers.nix b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/containers.nix
index 8fe59badd335..9d1359322d15 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/containers.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/containers.nix
@@ -243,6 +243,9 @@ let
 
     Restart = "on-failure";
 
+    Slice = "machine.slice";
+    Delegate = true;
+
     # Hack: we don't want to kill systemd-nspawn, since we call
     # "machinectl poweroff" in preStop to shut down the
     # container cleanly. But systemd requires sending a signal
@@ -657,6 +660,8 @@ in
       serviceConfig = serviceDirectives dummyConfig;
     };
   in {
+    systemd.targets."multi-user".wants = [ "machines.target" ];
+
     systemd.services = listToAttrs (filter (x: x.value != null) (
       # The generic container template used by imperative containers
       [{ name = "container@"; value = unit; }]
@@ -680,7 +685,7 @@ in
           } // (
           if config.autoStart then
             {
-              wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
+              wantedBy = [ "machines.target" ];
               wants = [ "network.target" ];
               after = [ "network.target" ];
               restartTriggers = [ config.path ];