diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2.h b/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2.h
index 7b50e03dfa66..62cad6522c7a 100644
--- a/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2.h
+++ b/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2.h
@@ -494,8 +494,6 @@ struct ocfs2_super
 	struct rb_root	osb_rf_lock_tree;
 	struct ocfs2_refcount_tree *osb_ref_tree_lru;
 
-	struct mutex system_file_mutex;
-
 	/*
 	 * OCFS2 needs to schedule several different types of work which
 	 * require cluster locking, disk I/O, recovery waits, etc. Since these
diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/super.c b/fs/ocfs2/super.c
index b875f01c9756..6dd45c2153f8 100644
--- a/fs/ocfs2/super.c
+++ b/fs/ocfs2/super.c
@@ -1997,8 +1997,6 @@ static int ocfs2_initialize_super(struct super_block *sb,
 	spin_lock_init(&osb->osb_xattr_lock);
 	ocfs2_init_steal_slots(osb);
 
-	mutex_init(&osb->system_file_mutex);
-
 	atomic_set(&osb->alloc_stats.moves, 0);
 	atomic_set(&osb->alloc_stats.local_data, 0);
 	atomic_set(&osb->alloc_stats.bitmap_data, 0);
diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/sysfile.c b/fs/ocfs2/sysfile.c
index d53a6cc866be..67e492f4b828 100644
--- a/fs/ocfs2/sysfile.c
+++ b/fs/ocfs2/sysfile.c
@@ -98,11 +98,9 @@ struct inode *ocfs2_get_system_file_inode(struct ocfs2_super *osb,
 	} else
 		arr = get_local_system_inode(osb, type, slot);
 
-	mutex_lock(&osb->system_file_mutex);
 	if (arr && ((inode = *arr) != NULL)) {
 		/* get a ref in addition to the array ref */
 		inode = igrab(inode);
-		mutex_unlock(&osb->system_file_mutex);
 		BUG_ON(!inode);
 
 		return inode;
@@ -112,11 +110,10 @@ struct inode *ocfs2_get_system_file_inode(struct ocfs2_super *osb,
 	inode = _ocfs2_get_system_file_inode(osb, type, slot);
 
 	/* add one more if putting into array for first time */
-	if (arr && inode) {
-		*arr = igrab(inode);
-		BUG_ON(!*arr);
+	if (inode && arr && !*arr && !cmpxchg(&(*arr), NULL, inode)) {
+		inode = igrab(inode);
+		BUG_ON(!inode);
 	}
-	mutex_unlock(&osb->system_file_mutex);
 	return inode;
 }