diff --git a/go/test/endtoend/onlineddl/vrepl/onlineddl_vrepl_test.go b/go/test/endtoend/onlineddl/vrepl/onlineddl_vrepl_test.go
index 204ea4e4cc9..f7753c9c6ca 100644
--- a/go/test/endtoend/onlineddl/vrepl/onlineddl_vrepl_test.go
+++ b/go/test/endtoend/onlineddl/vrepl/onlineddl_vrepl_test.go
@@ -368,6 +368,8 @@ func TestSchemaChange(t *testing.T) {
 		// no migrations pending at this time
 		time.Sleep(10 * time.Second)
 		onlineddl.CheckCancelAllMigrations(t, &vtParams, 0)
+		// Validate that invoking CANCEL ALL via vtctl works
+		onlineddl.CheckCancelAllMigrationsViaVtctl(t, &clusterInstance.VtctlclientProcess, keyspaceName)
 	})
 	t.Run("cancel all migrations: some migrations to cancel", func(t *testing.T) {
 		for i := range shards {
@@ -387,6 +389,26 @@ func TestSchemaChange(t *testing.T) {
 		wg.Wait()
 		onlineddl.CheckCancelAllMigrations(t, &vtParams, len(shards)*count)
 	})
+	t.Run("cancel all migrations: some migrations to cancel via vtctl", func(t *testing.T) {
+		for i := range shards {
+			throttleApp(shards[i].Vttablets[0], throttlerAppName)
+			defer unthrottleApp(shards[i].Vttablets[0], throttlerAppName)
+		}
+		// spawn n migrations; cancel them via cancel-all
+		var wg sync.WaitGroup
+		count := 4
+		for i := 0; i < count; i++ {
+			wg.Add(1)
+			go func() {
+				defer wg.Done()
+				_ = testOnlineDDLStatement(t, alterTableThrottlingStatement, "online", providedUUID, "vtgate", "vrepl_col", false)
+			}()
+		}
+		wg.Wait()
+		// cancelling via vtctl does not return values. We CANCEL ALL via vtctl, then validate via VTGate that nothing remains to be cancelled.
+		onlineddl.CheckCancelAllMigrationsViaVtctl(t, &clusterInstance.VtctlclientProcess, keyspaceName)
+		onlineddl.CheckCancelAllMigrations(t, &vtParams, 0)
+	})
 
 	// reparent shard -80 to replica
 	// and then reparent it back to original state
diff --git a/go/test/endtoend/onlineddl/vtctlutil.go b/go/test/endtoend/onlineddl/vtctlutil.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b98d1134283
--- /dev/null
+++ b/go/test/endtoend/onlineddl/vtctlutil.go
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2021 The Vitess Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package onlineddl
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"vitess.io/vitess/go/test/endtoend/cluster"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+// CheckCancelAllMigrations cancels all pending migrations. There is no validation for affected migrations.
+func CheckCancelAllMigrationsViaVtctl(t *testing.T, vtctlclient *cluster.VtctlClientProcess, keyspace string) {
+	cancelQuery := "alter vitess_migration cancel all"
+
+	_, err := vtctlclient.ApplySchemaWithOutput(keyspace, cancelQuery, cluster.VtctlClientParams{SkipPreflight: true})
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+}
diff --git a/go/vt/schemamanager/tablet_executor.go b/go/vt/schemamanager/tablet_executor.go
index 4ca04e53917..f22f6abe508 100644
--- a/go/vt/schemamanager/tablet_executor.go
+++ b/go/vt/schemamanager/tablet_executor.go
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ func (exec *TabletExecutor) Validate(ctx context.Context, sqls []string) error {
 
 	// We ignore DATABASE-level DDLs here because detectBigSchemaChanges doesn't
 	// look at them anyway.
-	parsedDDLs, _, _, err := exec.parseDDLs(sqls)
+	parsedDDLs, _, _, _, err := exec.parseDDLs(sqls)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -162,14 +162,15 @@ func (exec *TabletExecutor) Validate(ctx context.Context, sqls []string) error {
 	return err
 }
 
-func (exec *TabletExecutor) parseDDLs(sqls []string) ([]sqlparser.DDLStatement, []sqlparser.DBDDLStatement, [](*sqlparser.RevertMigration), error) {
+func (exec *TabletExecutor) parseDDLs(sqls []string) ([]sqlparser.DDLStatement, []sqlparser.DBDDLStatement, [](*sqlparser.RevertMigration), [](*sqlparser.AlterMigration), error) {
 	parsedDDLs := make([]sqlparser.DDLStatement, 0)
 	parsedDBDDLs := make([]sqlparser.DBDDLStatement, 0)
 	revertStatements := make([](*sqlparser.RevertMigration), 0)
+	alterMigrationStatements := make([](*sqlparser.AlterMigration), 0)
 	for _, sql := range sqls {
 		stmt, err := sqlparser.Parse(sql)
 		if err != nil {
-			return nil, nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse sql: %s, got error: %v", sql, err)
+			return nil, nil, nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse sql: %s, got error: %v", sql, err)
 		}
 		switch stmt := stmt.(type) {
 		case sqlparser.DDLStatement:
@@ -178,13 +179,15 @@ func (exec *TabletExecutor) parseDDLs(sqls []string) ([]sqlparser.DDLStatement,
 			parsedDBDDLs = append(parsedDBDDLs, stmt)
 		case *sqlparser.RevertMigration:
 			revertStatements = append(revertStatements, stmt)
+		case *sqlparser.AlterMigration:
+			alterMigrationStatements = append(alterMigrationStatements, stmt)
 		default:
 			if len(exec.tablets) != 1 {
-				return nil, nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("non-ddl statements can only be executed for single shard keyspaces: %s", sql)
+				return nil, nil, nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("non-ddl statements can only be executed for single shard keyspaces: %s", sql)
 			}
 		}
 	}
-	return parsedDDLs, parsedDBDDLs, revertStatements, nil
+	return parsedDDLs, parsedDBDDLs, revertStatements, alterMigrationStatements, nil
 }
 
 // IsOnlineSchemaDDL returns true if we expect to run a online schema change DDL