diff --git a/arch/powerpc/platforms/powernv/memtrace.c b/arch/powerpc/platforms/powernv/memtrace.c
index fdd48f1a39f7..84d038ed3882 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/platforms/powernv/memtrace.c
+++ b/arch/powerpc/platforms/powernv/memtrace.c
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ static int change_memblock_state(struct memory_block *mem, void *arg)
 	return 0;
 }
 
+/* called with device_hotplug_lock held */
 static bool memtrace_offline_pages(u32 nid, u64 start_pfn, u64 nr_pages)
 {
 	u64 end_pfn = start_pfn + nr_pages - 1;
@@ -110,6 +111,7 @@ static u64 memtrace_alloc_node(u32 nid, u64 size)
 	/* Trace memory needs to be aligned to the size */
 	end_pfn = round_down(end_pfn - nr_pages, nr_pages);
 
+	lock_device_hotplug();
 	for (base_pfn = end_pfn; base_pfn > start_pfn; base_pfn -= nr_pages) {
 		if (memtrace_offline_pages(nid, base_pfn, nr_pages) == true) {
 			/*
@@ -118,7 +120,6 @@ static u64 memtrace_alloc_node(u32 nid, u64 size)
 			 * we never try to remove memory that spans two iomem
 			 * resources.
 			 */
-			lock_device_hotplug();
 			end_pfn = base_pfn + nr_pages;
 			for (pfn = base_pfn; pfn < end_pfn; pfn += bytes>> PAGE_SHIFT) {
 				__remove_memory(nid, pfn << PAGE_SHIFT, bytes);
@@ -127,6 +128,7 @@ static u64 memtrace_alloc_node(u32 nid, u64 size)
 			return base_pfn << PAGE_SHIFT;
 		}
 	}
+	unlock_device_hotplug();
 
 	return 0;
 }