diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/copy_up.c b/fs/overlayfs/copy_up.c
index 843ba9ca7bfc..f08220c82c77 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/copy_up.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/copy_up.c
@@ -345,7 +345,8 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_inode(struct dentry *dentry, struct dentry *temp,
 
 	/*
 	 * Store identifier of lower inode in upper inode xattr to
-	 * allow lookup of the copy up origin inode.
+	 * allow lookup of the copy up origin inode. We do this last
+	 * to bless the inode, in case it was created in the index dir.
 	 */
 	err = ovl_set_origin(dentry, lowerpath->dentry, temp);
 
@@ -365,6 +366,7 @@ struct ovl_copy_up_ctx {
 	struct dentry *tempdir;
 	struct dentry *upper;
 	struct dentry *temp;
+	bool created;
 };
 
 struct ovl_copy_up_ops {
@@ -543,6 +545,187 @@ static const struct ovl_copy_up_ops ovl_copy_up_tmpfile_ops = {
 	.release = ovl_copy_up_tmpfile_release,
 };
 
+/*
+ * Copy up operations using index dir.
+ * Upper file is created in index dir, copied and linked to upperdir.
+ * The index entry remains to be used for mapping lower inode to upper inode.
+ */
+static int ovl_copy_up_indexdir_aquire(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *ctx)
+{
+	/* TODO: handle race of concurrent lower hardlinks copy up */
+	return ovl_copy_up_start(ctx->dentry);
+}
+
+static int ovl_copy_up_indexdir_prepare(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *ctx)
+{
+	struct dentry *upper;
+	struct dentry *index;
+	struct inode *inode;
+	int err;
+	struct cattr cattr = {
+		/* Can't properly set mode on creation because of the umask */
+		.mode = ctx->stat->mode & S_IFMT,
+		.rdev = ctx->stat->rdev,
+		.link = ctx->link,
+	};
+
+	upper = lookup_one_len_unlocked(ctx->dentry->d_name.name, ctx->upperdir,
+					ctx->dentry->d_name.len);
+	if (IS_ERR(upper))
+		return PTR_ERR(upper);
+
+	index = dget(ovl_dentry_index(ctx->dentry));
+	BUG_ON(!index);
+	inode = d_inode(index);
+	if (inode) {
+		/* Another lower hardlink already copied-up? */
+		err = -EEXIST;
+		if ((inode->i_mode & S_IFMT) != cattr.mode)
+			goto out_dput;
+
+		err = -ENOENT;
+		if (!inode->i_nlink)
+			goto out_dput;
+
+		/*
+		 * Verify that found index is a copy up of lower inode.
+		 * If index inode doesn't point back to lower inode via
+		 * origin file handle, then this is either an in-progress
+		 * copy up or leftover from index dir before copying layers.
+		 * In both cases, we cannot use this index and must fail the
+		 * copy up. The in-progress case will return -EEXISTS and the
+		 * leftover case will return -ESTALE.
+		 */
+		err = ovl_verify_origin(index, ctx->lowerpath->mnt,
+					ctx->lowerpath->dentry, false);
+		if (err) {
+			if (err == -ENODATA)
+				err = -EEXIST;
+			goto out_dput;
+		}
+
+		if (inode->i_nlink < 2) {
+			/*
+			 * An orphan index inode can be created by copying up
+			 * a lower hardlink alias and then unlinking it. From
+			 * overlayfs perspective, this inode may still live if
+			 * there are more lower hardlinks and it should contain
+			 * the data of the upper inode that was unlinked. So if
+			 * an orphan inode is found in the index dir and we
+			 * should reuse it on copy up of another lower alias.
+			 *
+			 * TODO: keep account of nlink incremented by copy up
+			 * and account of nlink decremented by lower cover up.
+			 * When copyup_nlink + coverup_nlink == origin_nlink
+			 * and index_nlink == 1, need to replace the index entry
+			 * with a whiteout because all overlay references to the
+			 * index are gone.
+			 */
+			pr_warn_ratelimited("overlayfs: linking to orphan upper (%pd2, ino=%lu)\n",
+					    index, inode->i_ino);
+		}
+
+		/* Link to existing upper without copying lower */
+		err = 1;
+		goto out;
+	}
+
+	inode_lock_nested(d_inode(ctx->tempdir), I_MUTEX_PARENT);
+	err = ovl_create_real(d_inode(ctx->tempdir), index, &cattr, NULL, true);
+	if (!err)
+		ctx->created = true;
+	inode_unlock(d_inode(ctx->tempdir));
+	if (err)
+		goto out_dput;
+
+out:
+	ctx->upper = upper;
+	ctx->temp = index;
+	return err;
+
+out_dput:
+	pr_warn_ratelimited("overlayfs: failed to create index entry (%pd2, ino=%lu, err=%i)\n",
+			    index, inode ? inode->i_ino : 0, err);
+	pr_warn_ratelimited("overlayfs: try clearing index dir or mounting with '-o index=off' to disable inodes index.\n");
+	dput(upper);
+	dput(index);
+	/* In case a bad/deleted index inode is cached in overlay dentry */
+	d_drop(ctx->dentry);
+	return err;
+}
+
+static int ovl_copy_up_indexdir_commit(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *ctx)
+{
+	int err;
+
+	inode_lock_nested(d_inode(ctx->upperdir), I_MUTEX_PARENT);
+	/* link the sucker ;) */
+	err = ovl_do_link(ctx->temp, d_inode(ctx->upperdir), ctx->upper, true);
+	/*
+	 * Overlay inode nlink doesn't account for lower hardlinks that haven't
+	 * been copied up, so we need to update it on copy up. Otherwise, user
+	 * could decrement nlink below zero by unlinking copied up uppers.
+	 * On the first copy up, we set nlink to 1 (excluding the index entry)
+	 * and on following copy ups we increment it. In between ovl_link
+	 * could add more upper hardlinks and increment nlink as well.
+	 */
+	if (!err) {
+		if (ctx->created)
+			set_nlink(d_inode(ctx->dentry), 1);
+		else
+			inc_nlink(d_inode(ctx->dentry));
+		/* Restore timestamps on parent (best effort) */
+		ovl_set_timestamps(ctx->upperdir, &ctx->pstat);
+	}
+	inode_unlock(d_inode(ctx->upperdir));
+
+	return err;
+}
+
+static int ovl_copy_up_indexdir_cancel(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *ctx)
+{
+	struct inode *inode = d_inode(ctx->temp);
+
+	if (WARN_ON(!inode))
+		return 0;
+
+	/* Cleanup prepared index entry only if we created it */
+	if (!ctx->created)
+		return 0;
+
+	inode_lock_nested(d_inode(ctx->tempdir), I_MUTEX_PARENT);
+
+	/*
+	 * We must not cleanup an already hardlinked index.
+	 */
+	if (inode->i_nlink != 1)
+		goto out_unlock;
+
+	pr_warn_ratelimited("overlayfs: cleanup bad index (%pd2, ino=%lu)\n",
+			    ctx->temp, inode->i_ino);
+	ovl_cleanup(d_inode(ctx->tempdir), ctx->temp);
+	/* Bad index inode is still cached in overlay dentry */
+	d_drop(ctx->dentry);
+
+out_unlock:
+	inode_unlock(d_inode(ctx->tempdir));
+	return 0;
+}
+
+static int ovl_copy_up_indexdir_release(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *ctx)
+{
+	ovl_copy_up_end(ctx->dentry);
+	return 0;
+}
+
+static const struct ovl_copy_up_ops ovl_copy_up_indexdir_ops = {
+	.aquire = ovl_copy_up_indexdir_aquire,
+	.prepare = ovl_copy_up_indexdir_prepare,
+	.commit = ovl_copy_up_indexdir_commit,
+	.cancel = ovl_copy_up_indexdir_cancel,
+	.release = ovl_copy_up_indexdir_release,
+};
+
 static int ovl_copy_up_locked(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *ctx,
 			      const struct ovl_copy_up_ops *ops)
 {
@@ -565,12 +748,16 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_locked(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *ctx,
 		revert_creds(old_creds);
 		put_cred(new_creds);
 	}
-	if (err)
+	if (err < 0)
 		goto out;
 
-	err = ovl_copy_up_inode(dentry, ctx->temp, ctx->lowerpath, ctx->stat);
-	if (err)
-		goto out_cancel;
+	/* err == 1 means we found an existing hardlinked upper inode */
+	if (!err) {
+		err = ovl_copy_up_inode(dentry, ctx->temp, ctx->lowerpath,
+					ctx->stat);
+		if (err)
+			goto out_cancel;
+	}
 
 	err = ops->commit(ctx);
 	if (err)
@@ -584,8 +771,8 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_locked(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *ctx,
 	}
 
 out:
-	dput(ctx->temp);
 	dput(ctx->upper);
+	dput(ctx->temp);
 	return err;
 
 out_cancel:
@@ -610,12 +797,14 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_one(struct dentry *parent, struct dentry *dentry,
 	struct path parentpath;
 	struct dentry *lowerdentry = lowerpath->dentry;
 	struct ovl_fs *ofs = dentry->d_sb->s_fs_info;
+	bool indexed = ovl_dentry_index(dentry);
 	struct ovl_copy_up_ctx ctx = {
 		.dentry = dentry,
 		.lowerpath = lowerpath,
 		.stat = stat,
 		.link = NULL,
-		.tempdir = ovl_workdir(dentry),
+		.tempdir = indexed ? ovl_indexdir(dentry->d_sb) :
+				     ovl_workdir(dentry),
 	};
 	const struct ovl_copy_up_ops *ops;
 
@@ -643,8 +832,10 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_one(struct dentry *parent, struct dentry *dentry,
 			return PTR_ERR(ctx.link);
 	}
 
-	/* Should we copyup with O_TMPFILE or with workdir? */
-	if (S_ISREG(stat->mode) && ofs->tmpfile)
+	/* Should we copyup with O_TMPFILE with indexdir or with workdir? */
+	if (indexed)
+		ops = &ovl_copy_up_indexdir_ops;
+	else if (S_ISREG(stat->mode) && ofs->tmpfile)
 		ops = &ovl_copy_up_tmpfile_ops;
 	else
 		ops = &ovl_copy_up_workdir_ops;
