diff --git a/Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt b/Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt
index 443f4b44ad97..0d7cb955aa01 100644
--- a/Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt
+++ b/Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt
@@ -261,10 +261,11 @@ it according to the policy which can be read from "auto_online_blocks" file:
 
 % cat /sys/devices/system/memory/auto_online_blocks
 
-The default is "offline" which means the newly added memory is not in a
-ready-to-use state and you have to "online" the newly added memory blocks
-manually. Automatic onlining can be requested by writing "online" to
-"auto_online_blocks" file:
+The default depends on the CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG_DEFAULT_ONLINE kernel config
+option. If it is disabled the default is "offline" which means the newly added
+memory is not in a ready-to-use state and you have to "online" the newly added
+memory blocks manually. Automatic onlining can be requested by writing "online"
+to "auto_online_blocks" file:
 
 % echo online > /sys/devices/system/memory/auto_online_blocks
 
diff --git a/mm/Kconfig b/mm/Kconfig
index d6e9042b99e0..b0432b71137d 100644
--- a/mm/Kconfig
+++ b/mm/Kconfig
@@ -192,6 +192,22 @@ config MEMORY_HOTPLUG_SPARSE
 	def_bool y
 	depends on SPARSEMEM && MEMORY_HOTPLUG
 
+config MEMORY_HOTPLUG_DEFAULT_ONLINE
+        bool "Online the newly added memory blocks by default"
+        default n
+        depends on MEMORY_HOTPLUG
+        help
+	  This option sets the default policy setting for memory hotplug
+	  onlining policy (/sys/devices/system/memory/auto_online_blocks) which
+	  determines what happens to newly added memory regions. Policy setting
+	  can always be changed at runtime.
+	  See Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt for more information.
+
+	  Say Y here if you want all hot-plugged memory blocks to appear in
+	  'online' state by default.
+	  Say N here if you want the default policy to keep all hot-plugged
+	  memory blocks in 'offline' state.
+
 config MEMORY_HOTREMOVE
 	bool "Allow for memory hot remove"
 	select MEMORY_ISOLATION
diff --git a/mm/memory_hotplug.c b/mm/memory_hotplug.c
index b21d8895ea41..fcafbfcff044 100644
--- a/mm/memory_hotplug.c
+++ b/mm/memory_hotplug.c
@@ -78,7 +78,11 @@ static struct {
 #define memhp_lock_acquire()      lock_map_acquire(&mem_hotplug.dep_map)
 #define memhp_lock_release()      lock_map_release(&mem_hotplug.dep_map)
 
+#ifndef CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG_DEFAULT_ONLINE
 bool memhp_auto_online;
+#else
+bool memhp_auto_online = true;
+#endif
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(memhp_auto_online);
 
 void get_online_mems(void)