diff --git a/drivers/md/md.c b/drivers/md/md.c
index 528c1452ce54da6b610bc1aa112739e2250e61e0..65ad837aeb5435516ac78260a667659eaa007aae 100644
--- a/drivers/md/md.c
+++ b/drivers/md/md.c
@@ -203,6 +203,14 @@ struct bio *bio_alloc_mddev(gfp_t gfp_mask, int nr_iovecs,
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(bio_alloc_mddev);
 
+static struct bio *md_bio_alloc_sync(struct mddev *mddev)
+{
+	if (!mddev->sync_set)
+		return bio_alloc(GFP_NOIO, 1);
+
+	return bio_alloc_bioset(GFP_NOIO, 1, mddev->sync_set);
+}
+
 /*
  * We have a system wide 'event count' that is incremented
  * on any 'interesting' event, and readers of /proc/mdstat
@@ -467,8 +475,6 @@ static void mddev_delayed_delete(struct work_struct *ws);
 
 static void mddev_put(struct mddev *mddev)
 {
-	struct bio_set *bs = NULL;
-
 	if (!atomic_dec_and_lock(&mddev->active, &all_mddevs_lock))
 		return;
 	if (!mddev->raid_disks && list_empty(&mddev->disks) &&
@@ -476,8 +482,12 @@ static void mddev_put(struct mddev *mddev)
 		/* Array is not configured at all, and not held active,
 		 * so destroy it */
 		list_del_init(&mddev->all_mddevs);
-		bs = mddev->bio_set;
+		if (mddev->bio_set)
+			bioset_free(mddev->bio_set);
+		if (mddev->sync_set)
+			bioset_free(mddev->sync_set);
 		mddev->bio_set = NULL;
+		mddev->sync_set = NULL;
 		if (mddev->gendisk) {
 			/* We did a probe so need to clean up.  Call
 			 * queue_work inside the spinlock so that
@@ -490,8 +500,6 @@ static void mddev_put(struct mddev *mddev)
 			kfree(mddev);
 	}
 	spin_unlock(&all_mddevs_lock);
-	if (bs)
-		bioset_free(bs);
 }
 
 static void md_safemode_timeout(unsigned long data);
@@ -756,7 +764,7 @@ void md_super_write(struct mddev *mddev, struct md_rdev *rdev,
 	if (test_bit(Faulty, &rdev->flags))
 		return;
 
-	bio = bio_alloc_mddev(GFP_NOIO, 1, mddev);
+	bio = md_bio_alloc_sync(mddev);
 
 	atomic_inc(&rdev->nr_pending);
 
@@ -788,7 +796,7 @@ int md_super_wait(struct mddev *mddev)
 int sync_page_io(struct md_rdev *rdev, sector_t sector, int size,
 		 struct page *page, int op, int op_flags, bool metadata_op)
 {
-	struct bio *bio = bio_alloc_mddev(GFP_NOIO, 1, rdev->mddev);
+	struct bio *bio = md_bio_alloc_sync(rdev->mddev);
 	int ret;
 
 	bio->bi_bdev = (metadata_op && rdev->meta_bdev) ?
@@ -5437,6 +5445,11 @@ int md_run(struct mddev *mddev)
 		if (!mddev->bio_set)
 			return -ENOMEM;
 	}
+	if (mddev->sync_set == NULL) {
+		mddev->sync_set = bioset_create(BIO_POOL_SIZE, 0);
+		if (!mddev->sync_set)
+			return -ENOMEM;
+	}
 
 	spin_lock(&pers_lock);
 	pers = find_pers(mddev->level, mddev->clevel);
diff --git a/drivers/md/md.h b/drivers/md/md.h
index 63d342d560b884dcf41485e17171fa4ff3dc1daa..991f0fe2dcc684a7f0cb2c5c51902b3dc9a19af8 100644
--- a/drivers/md/md.h
+++ b/drivers/md/md.h
@@ -444,6 +444,9 @@ struct mddev {
 	struct attribute_group		*to_remove;
 
 	struct bio_set			*bio_set;
+	struct bio_set			*sync_set; /* for sync operations like
+						   * metadata and bitmap writes
+						   */
 
 	/* Generic flush handling.
 	 * The last to finish preflush schedules a worker to submit