I use this script to backup my QEMU/KVM/libVirt virtual machines. The script requires KVM 2.1+ since it uses the live blockcommit mode. This means the data in the snapshot disk is rolled back into the original instead of the other way around. Script does NOT handle spaces in paths.

vm-backup.sh

#!/bin/bash
#

BACKUPDEST="$1"
DOMAIN="$2"
MAXBACKUPS="$3"

if [ -z "$BACKUPDEST" -o -z "$DOMAIN" ]; then
    echo "Usage: ./vm-backup <backup-folder> <domain> [max-backups]"
    exit 1
fi

if [ -z "$MAXBACKUPS" ]; then
    MAXBACKUPS=6
fi

echo "Beginning backup for $DOMAIN"

#
# Generate the backup path
#
BACKUPDATE=`date "+%Y-%m-%d"`
BACKUPDOMAIN="$BACKUPDEST/$DOMAIN"
BACKUP="$BACKUPDOMAIN/$BACKUPDATE"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP"

#
# Get the list of targets (disks) and the image paths.
#
TARGETS=`virsh domblklist "$DOMAIN" --details | grep ^file | grep -v 'cdrom' | grep -v 'floppy' | awk '{print $3}'`
IMAGES=`virsh domblklist "$DOMAIN" --details | grep ^file | grep -v 'cdrom' | grep -v 'floppy' | awk '{print $4}'`

#
# Create the snapshot.
#
DISKSPEC=""
for t in $TARGETS; do
    DISKSPEC="$DISKSPEC --diskspec $t,snapshot=external"
done
virsh snapshot-create-as --domain "$DOMAIN" --name backup --no-metadata \
	--atomic --disk-only $DISKSPEC >/dev/null
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "Failed to create snapshot for $DOMAIN"
    exit 1
fi

#
# Copy disk images
#
for t in $IMAGES; do
    NAME=`basename "$t"`
    cp "$t" "$BACKUP"/"$NAME"
done

#
# Merge changes back.
#
BACKUPIMAGES=`virsh domblklist "$DOMAIN" --details | grep ^file | grep -v 'cdrom' | grep -v 'floppy' | awk '{print $4}'`
for t in $TARGETS; do
    virsh blockcommit "$DOMAIN" "$t" --active --pivot >/dev/null
    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "Could not merge changes for disk $t of $DOMAIN. VM may be in invalid state."
        exit 1
    fi
done

#
# Cleanup left over backup images.
#
for t in $BACKUPIMAGES; do
    rm -f "$t"
done

#
# Dump the configuration information.
#
virsh dumpxml "$DOMAIN" >"$BACKUP/$DOMAIN.xml"

#
# Cleanup older backups.
#
LIST=`ls -r1 "$BACKUPDOMAIN" | grep -E '^[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}\.[0-9]+$'`
i=1
for b in $LIST; do
    if [ $i -gt "$MAXBACKUPS" ]; then
        echo "Removing old backup "`basename $b`
        rm -rf "$BACKUPDOMAIN/$b"
    fi

    i=$[$i+1]
done

echo "Finished backup"
echo ""

File changed to drop minutes & seconds from date.

Wrapper script mentioned at https://gist.github.com/cabal95/e36c06e716d3328b512b#gistcomment-2015722 is used as well

Works a treat on SSD servers, fails on servers with spinning disks and high IO.