diff --git a/kernel/cpu.c b/kernel/cpu.c
index a1ac7ea245d..033603c1d7c 100644
--- a/kernel/cpu.c
+++ b/kernel/cpu.c
@@ -301,6 +301,16 @@ int __ref cpu_down(unsigned int cpu)
 
 	cpu_clear(cpu, cpu_active_map);
 
+	/*
+	 * Make sure the all cpus did the reschedule and are not
+	 * using stale version of the cpu_active_map.
+	 * This is not strictly necessary becuase stop_machine()
+	 * that we run down the line already provides the required
+	 * synchronization. But it's really a side effect and we do not
+	 * want to depend on the innards of the stop_machine here.
+	 */
+	synchronize_sched();
+
 	err = _cpu_down(cpu, 0);
 
 	if (cpu_online(cpu))