diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/extent_map.c b/fs/ocfs2/extent_map.c
index 70a768b623cf..f7672472fa82 100644
--- a/fs/ocfs2/extent_map.c
+++ b/fs/ocfs2/extent_map.c
@@ -973,7 +973,13 @@ int ocfs2_read_virt_blocks(struct inode *inode, u64 v_block, int nr,
 	}
 
 	while (done < nr) {
-		down_read(&OCFS2_I(inode)->ip_alloc_sem);
+		if (!down_read_trylock(&OCFS2_I(inode)->ip_alloc_sem)) {
+			rc = -EAGAIN;
+			mlog(ML_ERROR,
+				 "Inode #%llu ip_alloc_sem is temporarily unavailable\n",
+				 (unsigned long long)OCFS2_I(inode)->ip_blkno);
+			break;
+		}
 		rc = ocfs2_extent_map_get_blocks(inode, v_block + done,
 						 &p_block, &p_count, NULL);
 		up_read(&OCFS2_I(inode)->ip_alloc_sem);