diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index 73aece39..acf0b21f 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ nova_system_group_name: nova
 nova_system_shell: /bin/bash
 nova_system_comment: nova system user
 nova_system_home_folder: "/var/lib/{{ nova_system_user_name }}"
+nova_libvirt_save_path: "{{ nova_system_home_folder }}/save"
 
 ## Manually specified nova UID/GID
 # Deployers can specify a UID for the nova user as well as the GID for the
@@ -397,6 +398,8 @@ nova_pip_packages:
   - nova
   - python-cephlibs
 
+nova_qemu_user: libvirt-qemu
+nova_qemu_group: kvm
 
 ## Tunable overrides
 nova_nova_conf_overrides: {}
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/symlink_libvirt_save_dir_to_nova_dir-3b1b278cb7e5831f.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/symlink_libvirt_save_dir_to_nova_dir-3b1b278cb7e5831f.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0f23d70a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/symlink_libvirt_save_dir_to_nova_dir-3b1b278cb7e5831f.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - The ``/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/save`` directory is now a
+    symlink to ``{{ nova_system_home_folder }}/save`` to
+    resolve an issue where the default location used by the
+    libvirt managed save command can result with the root
+    partitions on compute nodes becoming full when
+    ``nova image-create`` is run on large instances.
diff --git a/tasks/nova_compute_kvm_install.yml b/tasks/nova_compute_kvm_install.yml
index b751580b..2cda83e3 100644
--- a/tasks/nova_compute_kvm_install.yml
+++ b/tasks/nova_compute_kvm_install.yml
@@ -45,6 +45,30 @@
     - nova-apt-packages
     - nova-compute-kvm-apt-packages
 
+- name: Check if qemu save directory is a directory
+  stat:
+    path: "/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/save"
+  register: qemu_savedir_stat
+
+- name: Check if qemu save directory is empty
+  shell:
+    cmd: 'ls -1A /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/save'
+  register: qemu_savedir_empty
+
+# We force the link creation if our tests passed, this removes the directory as
+# well
+- name: Symlink qemu save dir to nova_libvirt_save_path
+  file:
+    path: "/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/save"
+    state: link
+    owner: "{{ nova_qemu_user }}"
+    group: "{{ nova_qemu_group }}"
+    src: "{{ nova_libvirt_save_path }}"
+    force: True
+  when:
+    - qemu_savedir_stat.stat.isdir
+    - qemu_savedir_empty.stdout_lines | length == 0
+
 - name: Install pip packages (venv)
   pip:
     name: "{{ item }}"
diff --git a/tasks/nova_pre_install.yml b/tasks/nova_pre_install.yml
index 31d028dd..f1eefa21 100644
--- a/tasks/nova_pre_install.yml
+++ b/tasks/nova_pre_install.yml
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@
     - { path: "{{ nova_system_home_folder }}/.ssh", mode: "0700" }
     - { path: "{{ nova_system_home_folder }}/cache/api" }
     - { path: "{{ nova_system_home_folder }}/instances" }
+    - { path: "{{ nova_libvirt_save_path }}", mode: "0750" }
     - { path: "/var/lock/nova" }
     - { path: "/var/run/nova" }
   tags: