A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed in a data processing system for migrating data pages subject to DMA access by temporarily disabling selected DMA operations within a physical I/O adapter. A determination is made as to whether to disable data access DMA capabilities of the physical I/O adapter. An operating mode of the physical I/O adapter is set to a particular mode utilizing a mode bit according to the determination of whether to disable data access DMA capabilities. Only data access DMA capabilities of the physical I/O adapter are disabled when the mode bit is set. Administrative services operations continue to be performed by the physical I/O adapter when the data access DMA capabilities of the physical I/O adapter are disabled.