diff --git a/include/sys/spa_impl.h b/include/sys/spa_impl.h
index e8806dda906a..6481d5397792 100644
--- a/include/sys/spa_impl.h
+++ b/include/sys/spa_impl.h
@@ -216,6 +216,7 @@ struct spa {
 	spa_load_state_t spa_load_state;	/* current load operation */
 	boolean_t	spa_indirect_vdevs_loaded; /* mappings loaded? */
 	boolean_t	spa_trust_config;	/* do we trust vdev tree? */
+	boolean_t	spa_is_splitting;	/* in the middle of a split? */
 	spa_config_source_t spa_config_source;	/* where config comes from? */
 	uint64_t	spa_import_flags;	/* import specific flags */
 	spa_taskqs_t	spa_zio_taskq[ZIO_TYPES][ZIO_TASKQ_TYPES];
diff --git a/module/zfs/spa.c b/module/zfs/spa.c
index 72a54ebcef2f..0d4646c15160 100644
--- a/module/zfs/spa.c
+++ b/module/zfs/spa.c
@@ -7477,6 +7477,7 @@ spa_vdev_split_mirror(spa_t *spa, char *newname, nvlist_t *config,
 	list_destroy(&vd_trim_list);
 
 	newspa->spa_config_source = SPA_CONFIG_SRC_SPLIT;
+	newspa->spa_is_splitting = B_TRUE;
 
 	/* create the new pool from the disks of the original pool */
 	error = spa_load(newspa, SPA_LOAD_IMPORT, SPA_IMPORT_ASSEMBLE);
@@ -7554,6 +7555,7 @@ spa_vdev_split_mirror(spa_t *spa, char *newname, nvlist_t *config,
 	spa_history_log_internal(newspa, "split", NULL,
 	    "from pool %s", spa_name(spa));
 
+	newspa->spa_is_splitting = B_FALSE;
 	kmem_free(vml, children * sizeof (vdev_t *));
 
 	/* if we're not going to mount the filesystems in userland, export */