diff --git a/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_ialloc.c b/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_ialloc.c
index 5118dedf9267..e8068422aa21 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_ialloc.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_ialloc.c
@@ -1737,6 +1737,7 @@ xfs_dialloc(
 	struct xfs_perag	*pag;
 	struct xfs_ino_geometry	*igeo = M_IGEO(mp);
 	bool			ok_alloc = true;
+	bool			low_space = false;
 	int			flags;
 	xfs_ino_t		ino;
 
@@ -1767,6 +1768,20 @@ xfs_dialloc(
 		ok_alloc = false;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * If we are near to ENOSPC, we want to prefer allocation from AGs that
+	 * have free inodes in them rather than use up free space allocating new
+	 * inode chunks. Hence we turn off allocation for the first non-blocking
+	 * pass through the AGs if we are near ENOSPC to consume free inodes
+	 * that we can immediately allocate, but then we allow allocation on the
+	 * second pass if we fail to find an AG with free inodes in it.
+	 */
+	if (percpu_counter_read_positive(&mp->m_fdblocks) <
+			mp->m_low_space[XFS_LOWSP_1_PCNT]) {
+		ok_alloc = false;
+		low_space = true;
+	}
+
 	/*
 	 * Loop until we find an allocation group that either has free inodes
 	 * or in which we can allocate some inodes.  Iterate through the
@@ -1795,6 +1810,8 @@ xfs_dialloc(
 				break;
 			}
 			flags = 0;
+			if (low_space)
+				ok_alloc = true;
 		}
 		xfs_perag_put(pag);
 	}