diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index d4bcc20ab6f0..8d4335779633 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -65,6 +65,9 @@
 #include <asm/div64.h>
 #include "internal.h"
 
+/* prevent >1 _updater_ of zone percpu pageset ->high and ->batch fields */
+static DEFINE_MUTEX(pcp_batch_high_lock);
+
 #ifdef CONFIG_USE_PERCPU_NUMA_NODE_ID
 DEFINE_PER_CPU(int, numa_node);
 EXPORT_PER_CPU_SYMBOL(numa_node);
@@ -5557,6 +5560,8 @@ int percpu_pagelist_fraction_sysctl_handler(ctl_table *table, int write,
 	ret = proc_dointvec_minmax(table, write, buffer, length, ppos);
 	if (!write || (ret < 0))
 		return ret;
+
+	mutex_lock(&pcp_batch_high_lock);
 	for_each_populated_zone(zone) {
 		for_each_possible_cpu(cpu) {
 			unsigned long  high;
@@ -5565,6 +5570,7 @@ int percpu_pagelist_fraction_sysctl_handler(ctl_table *table, int write,
 				per_cpu_ptr(zone->pageset, cpu), high);
 		}
 	}
+	mutex_unlock(&pcp_batch_high_lock);
 	return 0;
 }
 
@@ -6078,7 +6084,9 @@ static int __meminit __zone_pcp_update(void *data)
 
 void __meminit zone_pcp_update(struct zone *zone)
 {
+	mutex_lock(&pcp_batch_high_lock);
 	stop_machine(__zone_pcp_update, zone, NULL);
+	mutex_unlock(&pcp_batch_high_lock);
 }
 #endif