diff --git a/lib/libzfs/libzfs_pool.c b/lib/libzfs/libzfs_pool.c
index bb184ed688..08b83c8c16 100644
--- a/lib/libzfs/libzfs_pool.c
+++ b/lib/libzfs/libzfs_pool.c
@@ -2083,15 +2083,14 @@ zpool_get_physpath(zpool_handle_t *zhp, char *physpath, size_t phypath_size)
  * the disk to use the new unallocated space.
  */
 static int
-zpool_relabel_disk(libzfs_handle_t *hdl, const char *path)
+zpool_relabel_disk(libzfs_handle_t *hdl, const char *path, const char *msg)
 {
-	char errbuf[1024];
 	int fd, error;
 
 	if ((fd = open(path, O_RDWR|O_DIRECT)) < 0) {
 		zfs_error_aux(hdl, dgettext(TEXT_DOMAIN, "cannot "
 		    "relabel '%s': unable to open device: %d"), path, errno);
-		return (zfs_error(hdl, EZFS_OPENFAILED, errbuf));
+		return (zfs_error(hdl, EZFS_OPENFAILED, msg));
 	}
 
 	/*
@@ -2104,7 +2103,7 @@ zpool_relabel_disk(libzfs_handle_t *hdl, const char *path)
 	if (error && error != VT_ENOSPC) {
 		zfs_error_aux(hdl, dgettext(TEXT_DOMAIN, "cannot "
 		    "relabel '%s': unable to read disk capacity"), path);
-		return (zfs_error(hdl, EZFS_NOCAP, errbuf));
+		return (zfs_error(hdl, EZFS_NOCAP, msg));
 	}
 	return (0);
 }
@@ -2122,6 +2121,7 @@ zpool_vdev_online(zpool_handle_t *zhp, const char *path, int flags,
 	nvlist_t *tgt;
 	boolean_t avail_spare, l2cache, islog;
 	libzfs_handle_t *hdl = zhp->zpool_hdl;
+	int error;
 
 	if (flags & ZFS_ONLINE_EXPAND) {
 		(void) snprintf(msg, sizeof (msg),
@@ -2162,7 +2162,9 @@ zpool_vdev_online(zpool_handle_t *zhp, const char *path, int flags,
 
 		if (wholedisk) {
 			pathname += strlen(DISK_ROOT) + 1;
-			(void) zpool_relabel_disk(hdl, pathname);
+			error = zpool_relabel_disk(hdl, pathname, msg);
+			if (error != 0)
+				return (error);
 		}
 	}