diff --git a/docs/formatdomain.html.in b/docs/formatdomain.html.in
index e851f852a1..93ee05c94e 100644
--- a/docs/formatdomain.html.in
+++ b/docs/formatdomain.html.in
@@ -1624,6 +1624,20 @@
       </auth>
       <target dev='vda' bus='virtio'/>
     </disk>
+    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
+      <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2'/>
+      <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/domain.qcow'/>
+      <backingStore type='file'>
+        <format type='qcow2'/>
+        <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/snapshot.qcow'/>
+        <backingStore type='block'>
+          <format type='raw'/>
+          <source dev='/dev/mapper/base'/>
+          <backingStore/>
+        </backingStore>
+      </backingStore>
+      <target dev='vda' bus='virtio'/>
+    </disk>
   </devices>
   ...</pre>
 
@@ -1814,6 +1828,53 @@
         This feature doesn't support migration currently.
         </p>
         </dd>
+      <dt><code>backingStore</code></dt>
+      <dd>
+        This element describes the backing store used by the disk specified by
+        sibling <code>source</code> element. It is currently ignored on input
+        and only used for output to describe the detected backing chains.
+        <span class="since">Since 1.2.4</span>. An empty
+        <code>backingStore</code> element means the sibling source is
+        self-contained and is not based on any backing store. The following
+        attributes and sub-elements are supported in
+        <code>backingStore</code>:
+        <dl>
+          <dt><code>type</code> attribute</dt>
+          <dd>
+            The <code>type</code> attribute represents the type of disk used
+            by the backing store, see disk type attribute above for more
+            details and possible values.
+          </dd>
+          <dt><code>index</code> attribute</dt>
+          <dd>
+            This attribute is only valid in output (and ignored on input) and
+            it can be used to refer to a specific part of the disk chain when
+            doing block operations (such as via the
+            <code>virDomainBlockRebase</code> API). For example,
+            <code>vda[2]</code> refers to the backing store with
+            <code>index='2'</code> of the disk with <code>vda</code> target.
+          </dd>
+          <dt><code>format</code> sub-element</dt>
+          <dd>
+            The <code>format</code> element contains <code>type</code>
+            attribute which specifies the internal format of the backing
+            store, such as <code>raw</code> or <code>qcow2</code>.
+          </dd>
+          <dt><code>source</code> sub-element</dt>
+          <dd>
+            This element has the same structure as the <code>source</code>
+            element in <code>disk</code>. It specifies which file, device,
+            or network location contains the data of the described backing
+            store.
+          </dd>
+          <dt><code>backingStore</code> sub-element</dt>
+          <dd>
+            If the backing store is not self-contained, the next element
+            in the chain is described by nested <code>backingStore</code>
+            element.
+          </dd>
+        </dl>
+      </dd>
       <dt><code>mirror</code></dt>
       <dd>
         This element is present if the hypervisor has started a block
diff --git a/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng b/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng
index d2235e1f56..4249ed56e6 100644
--- a/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng
+++ b/docs/schemas/domaincommon.rng
@@ -1196,10 +1196,51 @@
       <optional>
         <ref name="snapshot"/>
       </optional>
-      <ref name="diskSource"/>
+      <interleave>
+        <ref name="diskSource"/>
+        <ref name="storageSourceExtra"/>
+        <ref name="diskBackingChain"/>
+      </interleave>
     </element>
   </define>
 
+  <define name="diskBackingChain">
+    <choice>
+      <ref name="diskBackingStore"/>
+      <ref name="diskBackingStoreLast"/>
+    </choice>
+  </define>
+
+  <define name="diskBackingStore">
+    <element name="backingStore">
+      <attribute name="index">
+        <ref name="positiveInteger"/>
+      </attribute>
+      <interleave>
+        <ref name="diskSource"/>
+        <ref name="diskBackingChain"/>
+        <ref name="diskFormat"/>
+      </interleave>
+    </element>
+  </define>
+
+  <define name="diskFormat">
+    <element name="format">
+      <attribute name="type">
+        <ref name="storageFormat"/>
+      </attribute>
+      <empty/>
+    </element>
+  </define>
+
+  <define name="diskBackingStoreLast">
+    <optional>
+      <element name="backingStore">
+        <empty/>
+      </element>
+    </optional>
+  </define>
+
   <define name="diskSource">
     <choice>
       <ref name="diskSourceFile"/>
@@ -1232,7 +1273,6 @@
           </optional>
         </element>
       </optional>
-      <ref name='storageSourceExtra'/>
     </interleave>
   </define>
 
@@ -1256,7 +1296,6 @@
           </optional>
         </element>
       </optional>
-      <ref name='storageSourceExtra'/>
     </interleave>
   </define>
 
@@ -1276,7 +1315,6 @@
           <empty/>
         </element>
       </optional>
-      <ref name='storageSourceExtra'/>
     </interleave>
   </define>
 
@@ -1340,7 +1378,6 @@
         </zeroOrMore>
         <empty/>
       </element>
-      <ref name='storageSourceExtra'/>
     </interleave>
   </define>
 
@@ -1373,7 +1410,6 @@
           </optional>
         </element>
       </optional>
-      <ref name='storageSourceExtra'/>
     </interleave>
   </define>
 
diff --git a/tests/domainschemadata/backing-chains.xml b/tests/domainschemadata/backing-chains.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..84df1dbd30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/domainschemadata/backing-chains.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+<domain type='qemu'>
+  <name>QEMUGuest1</name>
+  <uuid>c7a5fdbd-edaf-9455-926a-d65c16db1809</uuid>
+  <memory unit='KiB'>219136</memory>
+  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>219136</currentMemory>
+  <vcpu placement='static'>1</vcpu>
+  <os>
+    <type arch='i686' machine='pc'>hvm</type>
+    <boot dev='hd'/>
+  </os>
+  <clock offset='utc'/>
+  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
+  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
+  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
+  <devices>
+    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu</emulator>
+    <disk type='network' device='disk'>
+      <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2'/>
+      <source protocol='gluster' name='Volume2/Image'>
+        <host transport='unix' socket='/path/to/sock'/>
+      </source>
+      <backingStore type='file' index='1'>
+        <format type='qcow2'/>
+        <source file='/tmp/missing-backing-store.qcow'/>
+      </backingStore>
+      <target dev='vda' bus='virtio'/>
+    </disk>
+    <disk type='network' device='disk'>
+      <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2'/>
+      <source protocol='nbd' name='bar'>
+        <host transport='unix' socket='/var/run/nbdsock'/>
+      </source>
+      <backingStore type='block' index='1'>
+        <format type='qcow2'/>
+        <source dev='/dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest1'/>
+        <backingStore type='file' index='2'>
+          <format type='qcow2'/>
+          <source file='/tmp/image2.qcow'/>
+          <backingStore type='file' index='3'>
+            <format type='qcow2'/>
+            <source file='/tmp/image3.qcow'/>
+            <backingStore type='file' index='4'>
+              <format type='qcow2'/>
+              <source file='/tmp/image4.qcow'/>
+              <backingStore type='file' index='5'>
+                <source file='/tmp/image5.qcow'/>
+                <format type='qcow2'/>
+                <backingStore type='file' index='6'>
+                  <format type='raw'/>
+                  <source file='/tmp/Fedora-17-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso'/>
+                  <backingStore/>
+                </backingStore>
+              </backingStore>
+            </backingStore>
+          </backingStore>
+        </backingStore>
+      </backingStore>
+      <target dev='vdb' bus='virtio'/>
+    </disk>
+    <disk type='network' device='disk'>
+      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
+      <backingStore/>
+      <source protocol='gluster' name='Volume1/Image'>
+        <host name='example.org' port='6000'/>
+      </source>
+      <target dev='vdc' bus='virtio'/>
+    </disk>
+    <disk type='network' device='disk'>
+      <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2'/>
+      <auth username='myname'>
+        <secret type='ceph' usage='mycluster_myname'/>
+      </auth>
+      <source protocol='rbd' name='pool/image'>
+        <host name='mon1.example.org' port='6321'/>
+        <host name='mon2.example.org' port='6322'/>
+        <host name='mon3.example.org' port='6322'/>
+      </source>
+      <backingStore type='file' index='1'>
+        <source file='/tmp/image.qcow'/>
+        <backingStore/>
+        <format type='qcow2'/>
+      </backingStore>
+      <target dev='vdd' bus='virtio'/>
+    </disk>
+    <disk type='block' device='disk'>
+      <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2'/>
+      <source dev='/dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest11'/>
+      <target dev='vde' bus='virtio'/>
+    </disk>
+    <controller type='usb' index='0'/>
+    <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'/>
+    <memballoon model='virtio'/>
+  </devices>
+</domain>