diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_alloc.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_alloc.c
index ce84ffd0264c..31e90335b83d 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_alloc.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_alloc.c
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@
 #include "xfs_error.h"
 #include "xfs_trace.h"
 
+struct workqueue_struct *xfs_alloc_wq;
 
 #define XFS_ABSDIFF(a,b)	(((a) <= (b)) ? ((b) - (a)) : ((a) - (b)))
 
@@ -2207,7 +2208,7 @@ xfs_alloc_read_agf(
  * group or loop over the allocation groups to find the result.
  */
 int				/* error */
-xfs_alloc_vextent(
+__xfs_alloc_vextent(
 	xfs_alloc_arg_t	*args)	/* allocation argument structure */
 {
 	xfs_agblock_t	agsize;	/* allocation group size */
@@ -2417,6 +2418,37 @@ error0:
 	return error;
 }
 
+static void
+xfs_alloc_vextent_worker(
+	struct work_struct	*work)
+{
+	struct xfs_alloc_arg	*args = container_of(work,
+						struct xfs_alloc_arg, work);
+	unsigned long		pflags;
+
+	/* we are in a transaction context here */
+	current_set_flags_nested(&pflags, PF_FSTRANS);
+
+	args->result = __xfs_alloc_vextent(args);
+	complete(args->done);
+
+	current_restore_flags_nested(&pflags, PF_FSTRANS);
+}
+
+
+int				/* error */
+xfs_alloc_vextent(
+	xfs_alloc_arg_t	*args)	/* allocation argument structure */
+{
+	DECLARE_COMPLETION_ONSTACK(done);
+
+	args->done = &done;
+	INIT_WORK(&args->work, xfs_alloc_vextent_worker);
+	queue_work(xfs_alloc_wq, &args->work);
+	wait_for_completion(&done);
+	return args->result;
+}
+
 /*
  * Free an extent.
  * Just break up the extent address and hand off to xfs_free_ag_extent
diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_alloc.h b/fs/xfs/xfs_alloc.h
index 2f52b924be79..ab5d0fd2f535 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_alloc.h
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_alloc.h
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ struct xfs_perag;
 struct xfs_trans;
 struct xfs_busy_extent;
 
+extern struct workqueue_struct *xfs_alloc_wq;
+
 /*
  * Freespace allocation types.  Argument to xfs_alloc_[v]extent.
  */
@@ -119,6 +121,9 @@ typedef struct xfs_alloc_arg {
 	char		isfl;		/* set if is freelist blocks - !acctg */
 	char		userdata;	/* set if this is user data */
 	xfs_fsblock_t	firstblock;	/* io first block allocated */
+	struct completion *done;
+	struct work_struct work;
+	int		result;
 } xfs_alloc_arg_t;
 
 /*
diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_super.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_super.c
index 06d23b976f4c..5484888d39c4 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_super.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_super.c
@@ -1607,12 +1607,28 @@ xfs_init_workqueues(void)
 	xfs_syncd_wq = alloc_workqueue("xfssyncd", WQ_NON_REENTRANT, 0);
 	if (!xfs_syncd_wq)
 		return -ENOMEM;
+
+	/*
+	 * The allocation workqueue can be used in memory reclaim situations
+	 * (writepage path), and parallelism is only limited by the number of
+	 * AGs in all the filesystems mounted. Hence use the default large
+	 * max_active value for this workqueue.
+	 */
+	xfs_alloc_wq = alloc_workqueue("xfsalloc", WQ_MEM_RECLAIM, 0);
+	if (!xfs_alloc_wq)
+		goto out_destroy_syncd;
+
 	return 0;
+
+out_destroy_syncd:
+	destroy_workqueue(xfs_syncd_wq);
+	return -ENOMEM;
 }
 
 STATIC void
 xfs_destroy_workqueues(void)
 {
+	destroy_workqueue(xfs_alloc_wq);
 	destroy_workqueue(xfs_syncd_wq);
 }