diff --git a/nova/conf/workarounds.py b/nova/conf/workarounds.py
index e819a8cd2da6..a53247759019 100644
--- a/nova/conf/workarounds.py
+++ b/nova/conf/workarounds.py
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ Interdependencies to other options:
 
     cfg.BoolOpt(
         'disable_libvirt_livesnapshot',
-        default=True,
+        default=False,
         help="""
 Disable live snapshots when using the libvirt driver.
 
diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/fake_libvirt_utils.py b/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/fake_libvirt_utils.py
index 0b56cbdc71c6..e6de57c4f4c5 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/fake_libvirt_utils.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/fake_libvirt_utils.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ def create_image(disk_format, path, size):
     pass
 
 
-def create_cow_image(backing_file, path):
+def create_cow_image(backing_file, path, size=None):
     pass
 
 
diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/test_driver.py b/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/test_driver.py
index fe54dc75e7f9..8e63fd5d8791 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/test_driver.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/test_driver.py
@@ -454,6 +454,7 @@ class FakeVirtDomain(object):
         else:
             self._fake_dom_xml = """
                 <domain type='kvm'>
+                    <name>testinstance1</name>
                     <devices>
                         <disk type='file'>
                             <source file='filename'/>
@@ -510,6 +511,9 @@ class FakeVirtDomain(object):
     def blockJobInfo(self, path, flags):
         pass
 
+    def blockJobAbort(self, path, flags):
+        pass
+
     def resume(self):
         pass
 
@@ -528,6 +532,9 @@ class FakeVirtDomain(object):
     def isPersistent(self):
         return True
 
+    def undefine(self):
+        return True
+
 
 class CacheConcurrencyTestCase(test.NoDBTestCase):
     def setUp(self):
@@ -18998,6 +19005,14 @@ class _BaseSnapshotTests(test.NoDBTestCase):
 
 
 class LibvirtSnapshotTests(_BaseSnapshotTests):
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        super(LibvirtSnapshotTests, self).setUp()
+        # All paths through livesnapshot trigger a chown behind privsep
+        self.privsep_chown = mock.patch.object(nova.privsep.path, 'chown')
+        self.addCleanup(self.privsep_chown.stop)
+        self.privsep_chown.start()
+
     def test_ami(self):
         # Assign different image_ref from nova/images/fakes for testing ami
         self.instance_ref.image_ref = 'c905cedb-7281-47e4-8a62-f26bc5fc4c77'
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/live_snapshot_by_default-f231485fc2bf77f1.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/live_snapshot_by_default-f231485fc2bf77f1.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..4dd334426082
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/live_snapshot_by_default-f231485fc2bf77f1.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+upgrade:
+  - |
+    Nova now defaults to using the live snapshot feature of libvirt
+    when taking snapshots. This was previously disabled by default due
+    to crashes on load seen with older libvirt versions. It has been
+    used in production by many clouds, and appears stable in real
+    world environments. If you see crashes of guests during snapshots,
+    you can disable this with the ``disable_libvirt_livesnapshot``
+    config value in ``[workarounds]``.