diff --git a/net/sunrpc/sched.c b/net/sunrpc/sched.c
index 4f65ec28d2b4..b91fd9c597b4 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/sched.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/sched.c
@@ -844,10 +844,10 @@ static void rpc_async_schedule(struct work_struct *work)
 void *rpc_malloc(struct rpc_task *task, size_t size)
 {
 	struct rpc_buffer *buf;
-	gfp_t gfp = GFP_NOWAIT | __GFP_NOWARN;
+	gfp_t gfp = GFP_NOIO | __GFP_NOWARN;
 
 	if (RPC_IS_SWAPPER(task))
-		gfp |= __GFP_MEMALLOC;
+		gfp = __GFP_MEMALLOC | GFP_NOWAIT | __GFP_NOWARN;
 
 	size += sizeof(struct rpc_buffer);
 	if (size <= RPC_BUFFER_MAXSIZE)