diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/test_driver.py b/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/test_driver.py
index b416641d3629..60d074b3b9d3 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/test_driver.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/virt/libvirt/test_driver.py
@@ -19525,10 +19525,11 @@ class LibvirtConnTestCase(test.NoDBTestCase,
         disconnect_volume.assert_called_once_with(self.context,
                 mock.sentinel.new_connection_info, instance)
 
+    @mock.patch.object(fileutils, 'delete_if_exists')
     @mock.patch('nova.virt.libvirt.guest.BlockDevice.is_job_complete')
     @mock.patch('nova.privsep.path.chown')
     def _test_live_snapshot(
-            self, mock_chown, mock_is_job_complete,
+            self, mock_chown, mock_is_job_complete, mock_delete,
             can_quiesce=False, require_quiesce=False):
         drvr = libvirt_driver.LibvirtDriver(fake.FakeVirtAPI())
         mock_dom = mock.MagicMock()
@@ -19586,6 +19587,7 @@ class LibvirtConnTestCase(test.NoDBTestCase,
             mock_chown.assert_called_once_with(dltfile, uid=os.getuid())
             mock_snapshot.assert_called_once_with(dltfile, "qcow2",
                                                   dstfile, "qcow2")
+            mock_delete.assert_called_once_with(dltfile)
             mock_define.assert_called_once_with(xmldoc)
             mock_quiesce.assert_any_call(mock.ANY, self.test_instance,
                                          mock.ANY, True)
diff --git a/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py b/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py
index e8f7919972a9..e6a73be8ec08 100644
--- a/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py
+++ b/nova/virt/libvirt/driver.py
@@ -2687,6 +2687,10 @@ class LibvirtDriver(driver.ComputeDriver):
         libvirt_utils.extract_snapshot(disk_delta, 'qcow2',
                                        out_path, image_format)
 
+        # Remove the disk_delta file once the snapshot extracted, so that
+        # it doesn't hang around till the snapshot gets uploaded
+        fileutils.delete_if_exists(disk_delta)
+
     def _volume_snapshot_update_status(self, context, snapshot_id, status):
         """Send a snapshot status update to Cinder.