diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libvirt/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libvirt/default.nix
index 00dfc23908c8..f2710435c00c 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libvirt/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libvirt/default.nix
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 
 with stdenv.lib;
 
-# if you update, also bump pythonPackages.libvirt or it will break
+# if you update, also bump <nixpkgs/pkgs/development/python-modules/libvirt/default.nix> or it will break
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "libvirt-${version}";
   version = "3.10.0";
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/libvirt/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/libvirt/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..5dc33d2d93e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/libvirt/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+{ stdenv, buildPythonPackage, fetchurl, python, pkgconfig, lxml, libvirt, nose }:
+
+buildPythonPackage rec {
+  pname = "libvirt";
+  version = "3.10.0";
+
+  src = assert version == libvirt.version; fetchurl {
+    url = "http://libvirt.org/sources/python/${pname}-python-${version}.tar.gz";
+    sha256 = "1l0fgqjnx76pzkhq540x9sf5fgzlrn0dpay90j2m4iq8nkclcbpw";
+  };
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ];
+  buildInputs = [ libvirt lxml ];
+
+  checkInputs = [ nose ];
+  checkPhase = ''
+    nosetests
+  '';
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    homepage = http://www.libvirt.org/;
+    description = "libvirt Python bindings";
+    license = licenses.lgpl2;
+    maintainers = [ maintainers.fpletz ];
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index a2bb7b5f8e9a..48bcd849fa1f 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -21942,29 +21942,8 @@ EOF
     };
   };
 
-  libvirt = let
-    version = "3.10.0";
-  in assert version == pkgs.libvirt.version; pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-    name = "libvirt-python-${version}";
-
-    src = pkgs.fetchurl {
-      url = "http://libvirt.org/sources/python/${name}.tar.gz";
-      sha256 = "1l0fgqjnx76pzkhq540x9sf5fgzlrn0dpay90j2m4iq8nkclcbpw";
-    };
-
-    nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgs.pkgconfig ];
-    buildInputs = with self; [ python pkgs.libvirt lxml ];
-
-    buildPhase = "${python.interpreter} setup.py build";
-
-    installPhase = "${python.interpreter} setup.py install --prefix=$out";
-
-    meta = {
-      homepage = http://www.libvirt.org/;
-      description = "libvirt Python bindings";
-      license = licenses.lgpl2;
-      maintainers = [ maintainers.fpletz ];
-    };
+  libvirt = callPackage ../development/python-modules/libvirt {
+    inherit (pkgs) libvirt;
   };
 
   rpdb = buildPythonPackage rec {