diff --git a/src/conf/snapshot_conf.c b/src/conf/snapshot_conf.c
index c7f29360e748d889f1ccf09c04a04185bd73b702..ea04413aec1befe1924674dba7c5bbca30aa7cdb 100644
--- a/src/conf/snapshot_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/snapshot_conf.c
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 
+#include "configmake.h"
 #include "internal.h"
 #include "virbitmap.h"
 #include "virbuffer.h"
@@ -409,6 +410,18 @@ virDomainSnapshotDefParseNode(xmlDocPtr xml,
         goto cleanup;
     }
 
+    if (flags & VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_PARSE_VALIDATE) {
+        VIR_AUTOFREE(char *) schema = NULL;
+
+        schema = virFileFindResource("domainsnapshot.rng",
+                                     abs_top_srcdir "/docs/schemas",
+                                     PKGDATADIR "/schemas");
+        if (!schema)
+            goto cleanup;
+        if (virXMLValidateAgainstSchema(schema, xml) < 0)
+            goto cleanup;
+    }
+
     ctxt = xmlXPathNewContext(xml);
     if (ctxt == NULL) {
         virReportOOMError();
diff --git a/src/conf/snapshot_conf.h b/src/conf/snapshot_conf.h
index 08b2a3b955799523965b7075e2f6f164e8123d23..a0c87e7ade2ea875cefa252da54a5c28b85c0c76 100644
--- a/src/conf/snapshot_conf.h
+++ b/src/conf/snapshot_conf.h
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ typedef enum {
     VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_PARSE_DISKS    = 1 << 1,
     VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_PARSE_INTERNAL = 1 << 2,
     VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_PARSE_OFFLINE  = 1 << 3,
+    VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_PARSE_VALIDATE = 1 << 4,
 } virDomainSnapshotParseFlags;
 
 typedef enum {