diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c
index 61f68768ee84..bfc4e0c26fd3 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c
@@ -310,13 +310,21 @@ xfs_buf_item_format(
 
 	/*
 	 * If it is an inode buffer, transfer the in-memory state to the
-	 * format flags and clear the in-memory state. We do not transfer
+	 * format flags and clear the in-memory state.
+	 *
+	 * For buffer based inode allocation, we do not transfer
 	 * this state if the inode buffer allocation has not yet been committed
 	 * to the log as setting the XFS_BLI_INODE_BUF flag will prevent
 	 * correct replay of the inode allocation.
+	 *
+	 * For icreate item based inode allocation, the buffers aren't written
+	 * to the journal during allocation, and hence we should always tag the
+	 * buffer as an inode buffer so that the correct unlinked list replay
+	 * occurs during recovery.
 	 */
 	if (bip->bli_flags & XFS_BLI_INODE_BUF) {
-		if (!((bip->bli_flags & XFS_BLI_INODE_ALLOC_BUF) &&
+		if (xfs_sb_version_hascrc(&lip->li_mountp->m_sb) ||
+		    !((bip->bli_flags & XFS_BLI_INODE_ALLOC_BUF) &&
 		      xfs_log_item_in_current_chkpt(lip)))
 			bip->__bli_format.blf_flags |= XFS_BLF_INODE_BUF;
 		bip->bli_flags &= ~XFS_BLI_INODE_BUF;
diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_ialloc.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_ialloc.c
index 4411565b718b..7a0c17d7ec09 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_ialloc.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_ialloc.c
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
 #include "xfs_bmap.h"
 #include "xfs_cksum.h"
 #include "xfs_buf_item.h"
+#include "xfs_icreate_item.h"
 
 
 /*
@@ -155,7 +156,7 @@ xfs_check_agi_freecount(
  * than logging them (which in a transaction context puts them into the AIL
  * for writeback rather than the xfsbufd queue).
  */
-STATIC int
+int
 xfs_ialloc_inode_init(
 	struct xfs_mount	*mp,
 	struct xfs_trans	*tp,
@@ -212,6 +213,18 @@ xfs_ialloc_inode_init(
 		version = 3;
 		ino = XFS_AGINO_TO_INO(mp, agno,
 				       XFS_OFFBNO_TO_AGINO(mp, agbno, 0));
+
+		/*
+		 * log the initialisation that is about to take place as an
+		 * logical operation. This means the transaction does not
+		 * need to log the physical changes to the inode buffers as log
+		 * recovery will know what initialisation is actually needed.
+		 * Hence we only need to log the buffers as "ordered" buffers so
+		 * they track in the AIL as if they were physically logged.
+		 */
+		if (tp)
+			xfs_icreate_log(tp, agno, agbno, XFS_IALLOC_INODES(mp),
+					mp->m_sb.sb_inodesize, length, gen);
 	} else if (xfs_sb_version_hasnlink(&mp->m_sb))
 		version = 2;
 	else
@@ -227,13 +240,8 @@ xfs_ialloc_inode_init(
 					 XBF_UNMAPPED);
 		if (!fbuf)
 			return ENOMEM;
-		/*
-		 * Initialize all inodes in this buffer and then log them.
-		 *
-		 * XXX: It would be much better if we had just one transaction
-		 *	to log a whole cluster of inodes instead of all the
-		 *	individual transactions causing a lot of log traffic.
-		 */
+
+		/* Initialize the inode buffers and log them appropriately. */
 		fbuf->b_ops = &xfs_inode_buf_ops;
 		xfs_buf_zero(fbuf, 0, BBTOB(fbuf->b_length));
 		for (i = 0; i < ninodes; i++) {
@@ -269,7 +277,13 @@ xfs_ialloc_inode_init(
 			 */
 			xfs_trans_inode_alloc_buf(tp, fbuf);
 			if (version == 3) {
-				/* need to log the entire buffer */
+				/*
+				 * Mark the buffer as ordered so that they are
+				 * not physically logged in the transaction but
+				 * still tracked in the AIL as part of the
+				 * transaction and pin the log appropriately.
+				 */
+				xfs_trans_ordered_buf(tp, fbuf);
 				xfs_trans_log_buf(tp, fbuf, 0,
 						  BBTOB(fbuf->b_length) - 1);
 			}