diff --git a/include/net/net_namespace.h b/include/net/net_namespace.h
index ae1cd6c9ba521bb6ca9a57706b4ca77180bdcc7a..6dc3db3466bfb68b64e0e2643ca4088b0007e3b7 100644
--- a/include/net/net_namespace.h
+++ b/include/net/net_namespace.h
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ struct net {
 	struct hlist_head 	*dev_name_head;
 	struct hlist_head	*dev_index_head;
 	unsigned int		dev_base_seq;	/* protected by rtnl_mutex */
+	int			ifindex;
 
 	/* core fib_rules */
 	struct list_head	rules_ops;
diff --git a/net/core/dev.c b/net/core/dev.c
index 3ca300d8527134b82735b65c0cffa55637bbb571..1f06df8d10a38e9f0ac2e73781c27c0dae659d5d 100644
--- a/net/core/dev.c
+++ b/net/core/dev.c
@@ -5221,12 +5221,12 @@ int dev_ioctl(struct net *net, unsigned int cmd, void __user *arg)
  */
 static int dev_new_index(struct net *net)
 {
-	static int ifindex;
+	int ifindex = net->ifindex;
 	for (;;) {
 		if (++ifindex <= 0)
 			ifindex = 1;
 		if (!__dev_get_by_index(net, ifindex))
-			return ifindex;
+			return net->ifindex = ifindex;
 	}
 }