When create inactive external snapshot, after update disk definitions, virDomainSaveConfig is needed, if not after restart libvirtd the new snapshot file definitions in xml will be lost. Reproduce steps: 1. prepare a shut off guest $ virsh domstate rhel7 && virsh domblklist rhel7 shut off Target Source ------------------------------------------------ vda /var/lib/libvirt/images/rhel7.img 2. create external disk snapshot $ virsh snapshot-create rhel7 --disk-only && virsh domblklist rhel7 Domain snapshot 1417882967 created Target Source ------------------------------------------------ vda /var/lib/libvirt/images/rhel7.1417882967 3. restart libvirtd then check guest source file $ service libvirtd restart && virsh domblklist rhel7 Redirecting to /bin/systemctl restart libvirtd.service Target Source ------------------------------------------------ vda /var/lib/libvirt/images/rhel7.img This was first reported by Eric Blake http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2014-December/msg00369.html Signed-off-by: Shanzhi Yu <shyu(a)redhat.com&gt; --- src/qemu/qemu_driver.c | 3 +++ 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+) diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c b/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c index 9152cf5..9f8ea0a 100644 --- a/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c +++ b/src/qemu/qemu_driver.c @@ -12847,6 +12847,9 @@ qemuDomainSnapshotCreateInactiveExternal(virQEMUDriverPtr driver, goto cleanup; } defdisk->src->format = snapdisk->src->format; + + if (virDomainSaveConfig(cfg->configDir, vm->def) < 0) + goto cleanup; } } -- 2.1.0