diff --git a/mm/vmalloc.c b/mm/vmalloc.c
index 22ff0c32137f..4b0bcc998f1d 100644
--- a/mm/vmalloc.c
+++ b/mm/vmalloc.c
@@ -5122,9 +5122,14 @@ struct vm_struct **pcpu_get_vm_areas(const unsigned long *offsets,
 
 		ret = va_clip(&free_vmap_area_root,
 			&free_vmap_area_list, va, start, size);
-		if (WARN_ON_ONCE(unlikely(ret)))
-			/* It is a BUG(), but trigger recovery instead. */
+		if (unlikely(ret)) {
+			/*
+			 * -ENOMEM from the GFP_NOWAIT fallback is expected.
+			 * Anything else is a BUG(), but trigger recovery instead.
+			 */
+			WARN_ON_ONCE(ret != -ENOMEM);
 			goto recovery;
+		}
 
 		/* Allocated area. */
 		va = vas[area];