diff --git a/fs/btrfs/ctree.h b/fs/btrfs/ctree.h
index ad96495dedc52f79a05cdbccfea20383b871164f..213535f45da2418578506b0c3ea582da1c6e3b9c 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/ctree.h
+++ b/fs/btrfs/ctree.h
@@ -881,6 +881,9 @@ struct btrfs_fs_info {
 	u64 metadata_alloc_profile;
 	u64 system_alloc_profile;
 
+	unsigned data_chunk_allocations;
+	unsigned metadata_ratio;
+
 	void *bdev_holder;
 };
 
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
index a6b83744b05da6184caff93080cff1eeab1159b9..44c94d808e2b9a1d900c55c03b16960a6fd90081 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
@@ -1604,6 +1604,7 @@ struct btrfs_root *open_ctree(struct super_block *sb,
 	fs_info->btree_inode = new_inode(sb);
 	fs_info->btree_inode->i_ino = 1;
 	fs_info->btree_inode->i_nlink = 1;
+	fs_info->metadata_ratio = 8;
 
 	fs_info->thread_pool_size = min_t(unsigned long,
 					  num_online_cpus() + 2, 8);
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c b/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
index 178df4c67de447e87514e90284a7ccc294dc8df1..2895a8373232743c599c51c3c25ba9187162445e 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
@@ -1918,15 +1918,29 @@ void btrfs_delalloc_free_space(struct btrfs_root *root, struct inode *inode,
 	spin_unlock(&info->lock);
 }
 
+static void force_metadata_allocation(struct btrfs_fs_info *info)
+{
+	struct list_head *head = &info->space_info;
+	struct btrfs_space_info *found;
+
+	rcu_read_lock();
+	list_for_each_entry_rcu(found, head, list) {
+		if (found->flags & BTRFS_BLOCK_GROUP_METADATA)
+			found->force_alloc = 1;
+	}
+	rcu_read_unlock();
+}
+
 static int do_chunk_alloc(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans,
 			  struct btrfs_root *extent_root, u64 alloc_bytes,
 			  u64 flags, int force)
 {
 	struct btrfs_space_info *space_info;
+	struct btrfs_fs_info *fs_info = extent_root->fs_info;
 	u64 thresh;
 	int ret = 0;
 
-	mutex_lock(&extent_root->fs_info->chunk_mutex);
+	mutex_lock(&fs_info->chunk_mutex);
 
 	flags = btrfs_reduce_alloc_profile(extent_root, flags);
 
@@ -1958,6 +1972,18 @@ static int do_chunk_alloc(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans,
 	}
 	spin_unlock(&space_info->lock);
 
+	/*
+	 * if we're doing a data chunk, go ahead and make sure that
+	 * we keep a reasonable number of metadata chunks allocated in the
+	 * FS as well.
+	 */
+	if (flags & BTRFS_BLOCK_GROUP_DATA) {
+		fs_info->data_chunk_allocations++;
+		if (!(fs_info->data_chunk_allocations %
+		      fs_info->metadata_ratio))
+			force_metadata_allocation(fs_info);
+	}
+
 	ret = btrfs_alloc_chunk(trans, extent_root, flags);
 	if (ret)
 		space_info->full = 1;
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/super.c b/fs/btrfs/super.c
index 9744af9d71e95afa3a66f9ac1b2188722318aad8..30c9a8ca2a5460c1a2b1d2ca0fa651fa951a4252 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/super.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/super.c
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ enum {
 	Opt_degraded, Opt_subvol, Opt_device, Opt_nodatasum, Opt_nodatacow,
 	Opt_max_extent, Opt_max_inline, Opt_alloc_start, Opt_nobarrier,
 	Opt_ssd, Opt_thread_pool, Opt_noacl,  Opt_compress, Opt_notreelog,
-	Opt_flushoncommit, Opt_err,
+	Opt_ratio, Opt_flushoncommit, Opt_err,
 };
 
 static match_table_t tokens = {
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ static match_table_t tokens = {
 	{Opt_noacl, "noacl"},
 	{Opt_notreelog, "notreelog"},
 	{Opt_flushoncommit, "flushoncommit"},
+	{Opt_ratio, "metadata_ratio=%d"},
 	{Opt_err, NULL},
 };
 
@@ -234,6 +235,15 @@ int btrfs_parse_options(struct btrfs_root *root, char *options)
 			printk(KERN_INFO "btrfs: turning on flush-on-commit\n");
 			btrfs_set_opt(info->mount_opt, FLUSHONCOMMIT);
 			break;
+		case Opt_ratio:
+			intarg = 0;
+			match_int(&args[0], &intarg);
+			if (intarg) {
+				info->metadata_ratio = intarg;
+				printk(KERN_INFO "btrfs: metadata ratio %d\n",
+				       info->metadata_ratio);
+			}
+			break;
 		default:
 			break;
 		}