diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
index 3a798ec36824..46855d06666a 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
@@ -7753,14 +7753,16 @@ static void run_rebalance_domains(struct softirq_action *h)
 	enum cpu_idle_type idle = this_rq->idle_balance ?
 						CPU_IDLE : CPU_NOT_IDLE;
 
-	rebalance_domains(this_rq, idle);
-
 	/*
 	 * If this cpu has a pending nohz_balance_kick, then do the
 	 * balancing on behalf of the other idle cpus whose ticks are
-	 * stopped.
+	 * stopped. Do nohz_idle_balance *before* rebalance_domains to
+	 * give the idle cpus a chance to load balance. Else we may
+	 * load balance only within the local sched_domain hierarchy
+	 * and abort nohz_idle_balance altogether if we pull some load.
 	 */
 	nohz_idle_balance(this_rq, idle);
+	rebalance_domains(this_rq, idle);
 }
 
 /*