diff --git a/net/sunrpc/sched.c b/net/sunrpc/sched.c
index 253132130c42..4e0ebb4780df 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/sched.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/sched.c
@@ -883,8 +883,10 @@ int rpc_malloc(struct rpc_task *task)
 	struct rpc_buffer *buf;
 	gfp_t gfp = GFP_NOIO | __GFP_NOWARN;
 
+	if (RPC_IS_ASYNC(task))
+		gfp = GFP_NOWAIT | __GFP_NOWARN;
 	if (RPC_IS_SWAPPER(task))
-		gfp = __GFP_MEMALLOC | GFP_NOWAIT | __GFP_NOWARN;
+		gfp |= __GFP_MEMALLOC;
 
 	size += sizeof(struct rpc_buffer);
 	if (size <= RPC_BUFFER_MAXSIZE)
diff --git a/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/transport.c b/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/transport.c
index ead20e6754ab..90c99919ea30 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/transport.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/xprtrdma/transport.c
@@ -645,8 +645,10 @@ xprt_rdma_allocate(struct rpc_task *task)
 		return -ENOMEM;
 
 	flags = RPCRDMA_DEF_GFP;
+	if (RPC_IS_ASYNC(task))
+		flags = GFP_NOWAIT | __GFP_NOWARN;
 	if (RPC_IS_SWAPPER(task))
-		flags = __GFP_MEMALLOC | GFP_NOWAIT | __GFP_NOWARN;
+		flags |= __GFP_MEMALLOC;
 
 	if (!rpcrdma_get_rdmabuf(r_xprt, req, flags))
 		goto out_fail;