diff --git a/include/linux/mmzone.h b/include/linux/mmzone.h
index 3ac040f1936963e729c3688af5702ec9f97bb977..ca6ca92418a6eedc96d76c120ffd4095624d0441 100644
--- a/include/linux/mmzone.h
+++ b/include/linux/mmzone.h
@@ -317,6 +317,12 @@ struct zone {
 	 */
 	unsigned long		lowmem_reserve[MAX_NR_ZONES];
 
+	/*
+	 * This is a per-zone reserve of pages that should not be
+	 * considered dirtyable memory.
+	 */
+	unsigned long		dirty_balance_reserve;
+
 #ifdef CONFIG_NUMA
 	int node;
 	/*
diff --git a/include/linux/swap.h b/include/linux/swap.h
index 1e22e126d2acc7a880f449c5241c3a56e901e519..06061a7f8e69131e2401985e243298cbf9795a50 100644
--- a/include/linux/swap.h
+++ b/include/linux/swap.h
@@ -207,6 +207,7 @@ struct swap_list_t {
 /* linux/mm/page_alloc.c */
 extern unsigned long totalram_pages;
 extern unsigned long totalreserve_pages;
+extern unsigned long dirty_balance_reserve;
 extern unsigned int nr_free_buffer_pages(void);
 extern unsigned int nr_free_pagecache_pages(void);
 
diff --git a/mm/page-writeback.c b/mm/page-writeback.c
index c081bf62202b0a75254c37070be06034ef8204db..9ab6de82d8e692265a3dc061d360ef3897209361 100644
--- a/mm/page-writeback.c
+++ b/mm/page-writeback.c
@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@ static unsigned long highmem_dirtyable_memory(unsigned long total)
 			&NODE_DATA(node)->node_zones[ZONE_HIGHMEM];
 
 		x += zone_page_state(z, NR_FREE_PAGES) +
-		     zone_reclaimable_pages(z);
+		     zone_reclaimable_pages(z) - z->dirty_balance_reserve;
 	}
 	/*
 	 * Make sure that the number of highmem pages is never larger
@@ -181,7 +181,8 @@ static unsigned long determine_dirtyable_memory(void)
 {
 	unsigned long x;
 
-	x = global_page_state(NR_FREE_PAGES) + global_reclaimable_pages();
+	x = global_page_state(NR_FREE_PAGES) + global_reclaimable_pages() -
+	    dirty_balance_reserve;
 
 	if (!vm_highmem_is_dirtyable)
 		x -= highmem_dirtyable_memory(x);
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 93baebcc06f3810a4db2f8393213a69371a367f6..2cb9eb71e282f26db7896b524c98563f5cd4bf51 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -97,6 +97,14 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(node_states);
 
 unsigned long totalram_pages __read_mostly;
 unsigned long totalreserve_pages __read_mostly;
+/*
+ * When calculating the number of globally allowed dirty pages, there
+ * is a certain number of per-zone reserves that should not be
+ * considered dirtyable memory.  This is the sum of those reserves
+ * over all existing zones that contribute dirtyable memory.
+ */
+unsigned long dirty_balance_reserve __read_mostly;
+
 int percpu_pagelist_fraction;
 gfp_t gfp_allowed_mask __read_mostly = GFP_BOOT_MASK;
 
@@ -4822,8 +4830,19 @@ static void calculate_totalreserve_pages(void)
 			if (max > zone->present_pages)
 				max = zone->present_pages;
 			reserve_pages += max;
+			/*
+			 * Lowmem reserves are not available to
+			 * GFP_HIGHUSER page cache allocations and
+			 * kswapd tries to balance zones to their high
+			 * watermark.  As a result, neither should be
+			 * regarded as dirtyable memory, to prevent a
+			 * situation where reclaim has to clean pages
+			 * in order to balance the zones.
+			 */
+			zone->dirty_balance_reserve = max;
 		}
 	}
+	dirty_balance_reserve = reserve_pages;
 	totalreserve_pages = reserve_pages;
 }