diff --git a/include/linux/memory_hotplug.h b/include/linux/memory_hotplug.h
index ae892ee..988fde3 100644
--- a/include/linux/memory_hotplug.h
+++ b/include/linux/memory_hotplug.h
@@ -324,7 +324,7 @@
 extern bool is_mem_section_removable(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages);
 extern void try_offline_node(int nid);
 extern int offline_pages(unsigned long start_pfn, unsigned long nr_pages);
-extern void remove_memory(int nid, u64 start, u64 size);
+extern int remove_memory(int nid, u64 start, u64 size);
 extern void __remove_memory(int nid, u64 start, u64 size);
 
 #else
@@ -341,7 +341,11 @@
 	return -EINVAL;
 }
 
-static inline void remove_memory(int nid, u64 start, u64 size) {}
+static inline int remove_memory(int nid, u64 start, u64 size)
+{
+	return -EBUSY;
+}
+
 static inline void __remove_memory(int nid, u64 start, u64 size) {}
 #endif /* CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTREMOVE */
 
diff --git a/mm/memory_hotplug.c b/mm/memory_hotplug.c
index 6166ba5..4ebe696 100644
--- a/mm/memory_hotplug.c
+++ b/mm/memory_hotplug.c
@@ -1734,9 +1734,10 @@
 		endpa = PFN_PHYS(section_nr_to_pfn(mem->end_section_nr + 1))-1;
 		pr_warn("removing memory fails, because memory [%pa-%pa] is onlined\n",
 			&beginpa, &endpa);
-	}
 
-	return ret;
+		return -EBUSY;
+	}
+	return 0;
 }
 
 static int check_cpu_on_node(pg_data_t *pgdat)
@@ -1819,19 +1820,9 @@
 	}
 }
 
-/**
- * remove_memory
- * @nid: the node ID
- * @start: physical address of the region to remove
- * @size: size of the region to remove
- *
- * NOTE: The caller must call lock_device_hotplug() to serialize hotplug
- * and online/offline operations before this call, as required by
- * try_offline_node().
- */
-void __ref __remove_memory(int nid, u64 start, u64 size)
+static int __ref try_remove_memory(int nid, u64 start, u64 size)
 {
-	int ret;
+	int rc = 0;
 
 	BUG_ON(check_hotplug_memory_range(start, size));
 
@@ -1839,13 +1830,13 @@
 
 	/*
 	 * All memory blocks must be offlined before removing memory.  Check
-	 * whether all memory blocks in question are offline and trigger a BUG()
+	 * whether all memory blocks in question are offline and return error
 	 * if this is not the case.
 	 */
-	ret = walk_memory_range(PFN_DOWN(start), PFN_UP(start + size - 1), NULL,
-				check_memblock_offlined_cb);
-	if (ret)
-		BUG();
+	rc = walk_memory_range(PFN_DOWN(start), PFN_UP(start + size - 1), NULL,
+			       check_memblock_offlined_cb);
+	if (rc)
+		goto done;
 
 	/* remove memmap entry */
 	firmware_map_remove(start, start + size, "System RAM");
@@ -1857,14 +1848,45 @@
 
 	try_offline_node(nid);
 
+done:
 	mem_hotplug_done();
+	return rc;
 }
 
-void remove_memory(int nid, u64 start, u64 size)
+/**
+ * remove_memory
+ * @nid: the node ID
+ * @start: physical address of the region to remove
+ * @size: size of the region to remove
+ *
+ * NOTE: The caller must call lock_device_hotplug() to serialize hotplug
+ * and online/offline operations before this call, as required by
+ * try_offline_node().
+ */
+void __remove_memory(int nid, u64 start, u64 size)
 {
+
+	/*
+	 * trigger BUG() is some memory is not offlined prior to calling this
+	 * function
+	 */
+	if (try_remove_memory(nid, start, size))
+		BUG();
+}
+
+/*
+ * Remove memory if every memory block is offline, otherwise return -EBUSY is
+ * some memory is not offline
+ */
+int remove_memory(int nid, u64 start, u64 size)
+{
+	int rc;
+
 	lock_device_hotplug();
-	__remove_memory(nid, start, size);
+	rc  = try_remove_memory(nid, start, size);
 	unlock_device_hotplug();
+
+	return rc;
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(remove_memory);
 #endif /* CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTREMOVE */