diff --git a/mm/hugetlb.c b/mm/hugetlb.c
index 140135fc8113..9f35f34d3195 100644
--- a/mm/hugetlb.c
+++ b/mm/hugetlb.c
@@ -1292,15 +1292,79 @@ static inline void destroy_compound_gigantic_page(struct page *page,
 						unsigned int order) { }
 #endif
 
-static void update_and_free_page(struct hstate *h, struct page *page)
+static void __free_hugepage(struct hstate *h, struct page *page);
+
+/*
+ * As update_and_free_page() is be called from a non-task context(and hold
+ * hugetlb_lock), we can defer the actual freeing in a workqueue to prevent
+ * use GFP_ATOMIC to allocate a lot of vmemmap pages.
+ *
+ * update_hpage_vmemmap_workfn() locklessly retrieves the linked list of
+ * pages to be freed and frees them one-by-one. As the page->mapping pointer
+ * is going to be cleared in update_hpage_vmemmap_workfn() anyway, it is
+ * reused as the llist_node structure of a lockless linked list of huge
+ * pages to be freed.
+ */
+static LLIST_HEAD(hpage_update_freelist);
+
+static void update_hpage_vmemmap_workfn(struct work_struct *work)
 {
-	int i;
+	struct llist_node *node;
+	struct page *page;
 
+	node = llist_del_all(&hpage_update_freelist);
+
+	while (node) {
+		page = container_of((struct address_space **)node,
+				     struct page, mapping);
+		node = node->next;
+		page->mapping = NULL;
+		__free_hugepage(page_hstate(page), page);
+
+		cond_resched();
+	}
+}
+static DECLARE_WORK(hpage_update_work, update_hpage_vmemmap_workfn);
+
+static inline void __update_and_free_page(struct hstate *h, struct page *page)
+{
+	/* No need to allocate vmemmap pages */
+	if (!free_vmemmap_pages_per_hpage(h)) {
+		__free_hugepage(h, page);
+		return;
+	}
+
+	/*
+	 * Defer freeing to avoid using GFP_ATOMIC to allocate vmemmap
+	 * pages.
+	 *
+	 * Only call schedule_work() if hpage_update_freelist is previously
+	 * empty. Otherwise, schedule_work() had been called but the workfn
+	 * hasn't retrieved the list yet.
+	 */
+	if (llist_add((struct llist_node *)&page->mapping,
+		      &hpage_update_freelist))
+		schedule_work(&hpage_update_work);
+}
+
+static void update_and_free_page(struct hstate *h, struct page *page)
+{
 	if (hstate_is_gigantic(h) && !gigantic_page_runtime_supported())
 		return;
 
 	h->nr_huge_pages--;
 	h->nr_huge_pages_node[page_to_nid(page)]--;
+
+	__update_and_free_page(h, page);
+}
+
+/*
+ * This is where the call to allocate vmemmmap pages will be inserted.
+ */
+static void __free_hugepage(struct hstate *h, struct page *page)
+{
+	int i;
+
 	for (i = 0; i < pages_per_huge_page(h); i++) {
 		page[i].flags &= ~(1 << PG_locked | 1 << PG_error |
 				1 << PG_referenced | 1 << PG_dirty |
@@ -1313,13 +1377,17 @@ static void update_and_free_page(struct hstate *h, struct page *page)
 	set_page_refcounted(page);
 	if (hstate_is_gigantic(h)) {
 		/*
-		 * Temporarily drop the hugetlb_lock, because
-		 * we might block in free_gigantic_page().
+		 * Temporarily drop the hugetlb_lock only when this type of
+		 * HugeTLB page does not support vmemmap optimization (which
+		 * context do not hold the hugetlb_lock), because we might
+		 * block in free_gigantic_page().
 		 */
-		spin_unlock(&hugetlb_lock);
+		if (!free_vmemmap_pages_per_hpage(h))
+			spin_unlock(&hugetlb_lock);
 		destroy_compound_gigantic_page(page, huge_page_order(h));
 		free_gigantic_page(page, huge_page_order(h));
-		spin_lock(&hugetlb_lock);
+		if (!free_vmemmap_pages_per_hpage(h))
+			spin_lock(&hugetlb_lock);
 	} else {
 		__free_pages(page, huge_page_order(h));
 	}
diff --git a/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c b/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c
index 5cf7b6122c86..c4bbca270453 100644
--- a/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c
+++ b/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.c
@@ -178,18 +178,6 @@
 #define RESERVE_VMEMMAP_NR		2U
 #define RESERVE_VMEMMAP_SIZE		(RESERVE_VMEMMAP_NR << PAGE_SHIFT)
 
-/*
- * How many vmemmap pages associated with a HugeTLB page that can be freed
- * to the buddy allocator.
- *
- * Todo: Returns zero for now, which means the feature is disabled. We will
- * enable it once all the infrastructure is there.
- */
-static inline unsigned int free_vmemmap_pages_per_hpage(struct hstate *h)
-{
-	return 0;
-}
-
 static inline unsigned long free_vmemmap_pages_size_per_hpage(struct hstate *h)
 {
 	return (unsigned long)free_vmemmap_pages_per_hpage(h) << PAGE_SHIFT;
diff --git a/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.h b/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.h
index 6923f03534d5..01f8637adbe0 100644
--- a/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.h
+++ b/mm/hugetlb_vmemmap.h
@@ -12,9 +12,26 @@
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE_FREE_VMEMMAP
 void free_huge_page_vmemmap(struct hstate *h, struct page *head);
+
+/*
+ * How many vmemmap pages associated with a HugeTLB page that can be freed
+ * to the buddy allocator.
+ *
+ * Todo: Returns zero for now, which means the feature is disabled. We will
+ * enable it once all the infrastructure is there.
+ */
+static inline unsigned int free_vmemmap_pages_per_hpage(struct hstate *h)
+{
+	return 0;
+}
 #else
 static inline void free_huge_page_vmemmap(struct hstate *h, struct page *head)
 {
 }
+
+static inline unsigned int free_vmemmap_pages_per_hpage(struct hstate *h)
+{
+	return 0;
+}
 #endif /* CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE_FREE_VMEMMAP */
 #endif /* _LINUX_HUGETLB_VMEMMAP_H */
