diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
index a54a9631f59e..825d75c548b8 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
@@ -3262,7 +3262,13 @@ void i915_gem_close_object(struct drm_gem_object *gem, struct drm_file *file)
 
 		vma = radix_tree_delete(&ctx->handles_vma, lut->handle);
 
-		if (!i915_vma_is_ggtt(vma))
+		GEM_BUG_ON(vma->obj != obj);
+
+		/* We allow the process to have multiple handles to the same
+		 * vma, in the same fd namespace, by virtue of flink/open.
+		 */
+		GEM_BUG_ON(!vma->open_count);
+		if (!--vma->open_count && !i915_vma_is_ggtt(vma))
 			i915_vma_close(vma);
 
 		list_del(&lut->obj_link);
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem_execbuffer.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem_execbuffer.c
index 25b14d492d91..944e9e543573 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem_execbuffer.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem_execbuffer.c
@@ -720,6 +720,7 @@ static int eb_lookup_vmas(struct i915_execbuffer *eb)
 			goto err_obj;
 		}
 
+		vma->open_count++;
 		list_add(&lut->obj_link, &obj->lut_list);
 		list_add(&lut->ctx_link, &eb->ctx->handles_list);
 		lut->ctx = eb->ctx;
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_vma.h b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_vma.h
index 1fd61e88cfd0..e811067c7724 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_vma.h
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_vma.h
@@ -59,6 +59,12 @@ struct i915_vma {
 	u32 fence_size;
 	u32 fence_alignment;
 
+	/**
+	 * Count of the number of times this vma has been opened by different
+	 * handles (but same file) for execbuf, i.e. the number of aliases
+	 * that exist in the ctx->handle_vmas LUT for this vma.
+	 */
+	unsigned int open_count;
 	unsigned int flags;
 	/**
 	 * How many users have pinned this object in GTT space. The following