diff --git a/PVE/QemuServer.pm b/PVE/QemuServer.pm
index 2f0b2e8e..25282b73 100644
--- a/PVE/QemuServer.pm
+++ b/PVE/QemuServer.pm
@@ -3782,6 +3782,11 @@ sub config_to_command {
 	print "activating and using '$vmstate' as vmstate\n";
     }
 
+    if (PVE::QemuConfig->is_template($conf)) {
+	# needed to workaround base volumes being read-only
+	push @$cmd, '-snapshot';
+    }
+
     # add custom args
     if ($conf->{args}) {
 	my $aa = PVE::Tools::split_args($conf->{args});
diff --git a/test/cfg2cmd/efi-raw-template.conf.cmd b/test/cfg2cmd/efi-raw-template.conf.cmd
index 636f03ed..d99862b4 100644
--- a/test/cfg2cmd/efi-raw-template.conf.cmd
+++ b/test/cfg2cmd/efi-raw-template.conf.cmd
@@ -24,4 +24,5 @@
   -device 'VGA,id=vga,bus=pci.0,addr=0x2' \
   -device 'virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3' \
   -iscsi 'initiator-name=iqn.1993-08.org.debian:01:aabbccddeeff' \
-  -machine 'type=pc+pve0'
+  -machine 'type=pc+pve0' \
+  -snapshot
diff --git a/test/cfg2cmd/simple1-template.conf.cmd b/test/cfg2cmd/simple1-template.conf.cmd
index 20a6dcf4..7fb6fd12 100644
--- a/test/cfg2cmd/simple1-template.conf.cmd
+++ b/test/cfg2cmd/simple1-template.conf.cmd
@@ -33,4 +33,5 @@
   -device 'ide-hd,bus=ahci0.0,drive=drive-sata0,id=sata0'
   -netdev 'type=tap,id=net0,ifname=tap8006i0,script=/var/lib/qemu-server/pve-bridge,downscript=/var/lib/qemu-server/pve-bridgedown,vhost=on' \
   -device 'virtio-net-pci,mac=A2:C0:43:77:08:A0,netdev=net0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x12,id=net0,bootindex=300' \
-  -machine 'type=pc'
+  -machine 'type=pc' \
+  -snapshot