US Patent 9524389 Forensic instance snapshotting

A system and method for capturing forensic snapshots of virtual machines prior to terminating the virtual machine, the system and method including obtaining a configuration that specifies an event and running a virtual machine in accordance with the configuration. Upon detection of an occurrence of the specified event, the system and method further includes determining a state of the virtual machine, storing information based at least in part on the determined state of the virtual machine, the information usable at least in part to recreate the state of the virtual machine, terminating the virtual machine, and running another virtual machine in accordance with the configuration.