diff --git a/docs/release-notes/version-2.9.md b/docs/release-notes/version-2.9.md
index 563220cb5..e755e7b82 100644
--- a/docs/release-notes/version-2.9.md
+++ b/docs/release-notes/version-2.9.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 ### Bug Fixes
 
 * [#5383](https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox/issues/5383) - Fix setting user password via REST API
+* [#5396](https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox/issues/5396) - Fix uniqueness constraint for virtual machine names
 
 ---
 
diff --git a/netbox/virtualization/models.py b/netbox/virtualization/models.py
index 7a8bd7595..72d84a908 100644
--- a/netbox/virtualization/models.py
+++ b/netbox/virtualization/models.py
@@ -319,10 +319,10 @@ class VirtualMachine(ChangeLoggedModel, ConfigContextModel, CustomFieldModel):
         # because Django does not consider two NULL fields to be equal, and thus will not trigger a violation
         # of the uniqueness constraint without manual intervention.
         if self.tenant is None and VirtualMachine.objects.exclude(pk=self.pk).filter(
-                name=self.name, tenant__isnull=True
+                name=self.name, cluster=self.cluster, tenant__isnull=True
         ):
             raise ValidationError({
-                'name': 'A virtual machine with this name already exists.'
+                'name': 'A virtual machine with this name already exists in the assigned cluster.'
             })
 
         super().validate_unique(exclude)