diff --git a/app/nvmf_tgt/nvmf_tgt.c b/app/nvmf_tgt/nvmf_tgt.c
index ae813c19f..14fbf3506 100644
--- a/app/nvmf_tgt/nvmf_tgt.c
+++ b/app/nvmf_tgt/nvmf_tgt.c
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ subsystem_delete_event(void *arg1, void *arg2)
 	struct nvmf_tgt_subsystem *app_subsys = arg1;
 	struct spdk_nvmf_subsystem *subsystem = app_subsys->subsystem;
 
+	TAILQ_REMOVE(&g_subsystems, app_subsys, tailq);
 	free(app_subsys);
 
 	spdk_nvmf_delete_subsystem(subsystem);
@@ -111,7 +112,6 @@ shutdown_subsystems(void)
 
 	g_subsystems_shutdown = true;
 	TAILQ_FOREACH_SAFE(app_subsys, &g_subsystems, tailq, tmp) {
-		TAILQ_REMOVE(&g_subsystems, app_subsys, tailq);
 		nvmf_tgt_delete_subsystem(app_subsys);
 	}
 }
@@ -286,7 +286,6 @@ nvmf_tgt_shutdown_subsystem_by_nqn(const char *nqn)
 
 	TAILQ_FOREACH_SAFE(tgt_subsystem, &g_subsystems, tailq, subsys_tmp) {
 		if (strcmp(tgt_subsystem->subsystem->subnqn, nqn) == 0) {
-			TAILQ_REMOVE(&g_subsystems, tgt_subsystem, tailq);
 			nvmf_tgt_delete_subsystem(tgt_subsystem);
 			return 0;
 		}
diff --git a/autotest.sh b/autotest.sh
index 88c7ef0c1..50515f98e 100755
--- a/autotest.sh
+++ b/autotest.sh
@@ -118,6 +118,7 @@ run_test test/nvmf/fio/fio.sh
 run_test test/nvmf/filesystem/filesystem.sh
 run_test test/nvmf/discovery/discovery.sh
 run_test test/nvmf/nvme_cli/nvme_cli.sh
+run_test test/nvmf/shutdown/shutdown.sh
 
 if [ $RUN_NIGHTLY -eq 1 ]; then
 	run_test test/nvmf/multiconnection/multiconnection.sh
diff --git a/test/nvmf/shutdown/shutdown.sh b/test/nvmf/shutdown/shutdown.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..b738e0a60
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/nvmf/shutdown/shutdown.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+testdir=$(readlink -f $(dirname $0))
+rootdir=$(readlink -f $testdir/../../..)
+source $rootdir/scripts/autotest_common.sh
+source $rootdir/test/nvmf/common.sh
+
+MALLOC_BDEV_SIZE=128
+MALLOC_BLOCK_SIZE=512
+
+rpc_py="python $rootdir/scripts/rpc.py"
+
+set -e
+
+if ! rdma_nic_available; then
+	echo "no NIC for nvmf test"
+	exit 0
+fi
+
+timing_enter shutdown
+
+# Start up the NVMf target in another process
+$rootdir/app/nvmf_tgt/nvmf_tgt -c $testdir/../nvmf.conf &
+pid=$!
+
+trap "killprocess $pid; exit 1" SIGINT SIGTERM EXIT
+
+waitforlisten $pid ${RPC_PORT}
+
+# Create 12 subsystems
+for i in `seq 1 12`
+do
+	bdevs="$($rpc_py construct_malloc_bdev $MALLOC_BDEV_SIZE $MALLOC_BLOCK_SIZE)"
+	$rpc_py construct_nvmf_subsystem Virtual nqn.2016-06.io.spdk:cnode${i} "transport:RDMA traddr:$NVMF_FIRST_TARGET_IP trsvcid:$NVMF_PORT" '' -s SPDK${i} -n "$bdevs"
+done
+
+# Kill nvmf tgt without removing any subsystem to check whether it can shutdown correctly
+rm -f ./local-job0-0-verify.state
+
+trap - SIGINT SIGTERM EXIT
+
+killprocess $pid
+timing_exit shutdown