diff --git a/include/haproxy/cpuset.h b/include/haproxy/cpuset.h
index 78c4df270..e4811bcd6 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/cpuset.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/cpuset.h
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 #include <haproxy/cpuset-t.h>
 
-extern struct cpu_map cpu_map[MAX_TGROUPS];
+extern struct cpu_map *cpu_map;
 
 /* Unset all indexes in <set>.
  */
diff --git a/src/cpuset.c b/src/cpuset.c
index 73b97b975..3ce6cf223 100644
--- a/src/cpuset.c
+++ b/src/cpuset.c
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 #include <haproxy/cpuset.h>
 #include <haproxy/intops.h>
 
-struct cpu_map cpu_map[MAX_TGROUPS];
+struct cpu_map *cpu_map;
 
 void ha_cpuset_zero(struct hap_cpuset *set)
 {
@@ -185,3 +185,24 @@ int cpu_map_configured(void)
 	}
 	return 0;
 }
+
+/* Allocates everything needed to store CPU information at boot.
+ * Returns non-zero on success, zero on failure.
+ */
+static int cpuset_alloc(void)
+{
+	/* allocate the structures used to store CPU topology info */
+	cpu_map = (struct cpu_map*)calloc(MAX_TGROUPS, sizeof(*cpu_map));
+	if (!cpu_map)
+		return 0;
+
+	return 1;
+}
+
+static void cpuset_deinit(void)
+{
+	ha_free(&cpu_map);
+}
+
+INITCALL0(STG_ALLOC, cpuset_alloc);
+REGISTER_POST_DEINIT(cpuset_deinit);
diff --git a/src/haproxy.c b/src/haproxy.c
index 18308bc59..383d1e47d 100644
--- a/src/haproxy.c
+++ b/src/haproxy.c
@@ -1530,19 +1530,6 @@ static void init_early(int argc, char **argv)
 		exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
 	}
 
-	/* Some CPU affinity stuff may have to be initialized */
-#ifdef USE_CPU_AFFINITY
-	{
-		int g, i;
-
-		for (g = 0; g < MAX_TGROUPS; g++) {
-			for (i = 0; i < MAX_THREADS_PER_GROUP; ++i) {
-				ha_cpuset_zero(&cpu_map[g].thread[i]);
-			}
-		}
-	}
-#endif
-
 	/* extract the program name from argv[0], it will be used for the logs
 	 * and error messages.
 	 */