diff --git a/drivers/block/nbd.c b/drivers/block/nbd.c
index 7bdc7eb808ea..709bad75c47b 100644
--- a/drivers/block/nbd.c
+++ b/drivers/block/nbd.c
@@ -1473,7 +1473,17 @@ static int nbd_start_device(struct nbd_device *nbd)
 		return -EINVAL;
 	}
 
-	blk_mq_update_nr_hw_queues(&nbd->tag_set, config->num_connections);
+retry:
+	mutex_unlock(&nbd->config_lock);
+	blk_mq_update_nr_hw_queues(&nbd->tag_set, num_connections);
+	mutex_lock(&nbd->config_lock);
+
+	/* if another code path updated nr_hw_queues, retry until succeed */
+	if (num_connections != config->num_connections) {
+		num_connections = config->num_connections;
+		goto retry;
+	}
+
 	nbd->pid = task_pid_nr(current);
 
 	nbd_parse_flags(nbd);