First off, I'm glad to see that vmss2core has finally made its way not only into public distribution, but into Caps-S Supported status no less.
Slava -- vmss2core: zero-configuration debugging tool for Virtual Machines
VMware -- Debugging Virtual Machines with the Checkpoint to Core Tool
This was one of those tools I had been hoping (okay, lobbying!) for a number of years now to see released for use by two particular market segments -- neither of which appear to have received the message.
Virtual Appliances: As a rule, VAs are all about minimization of footprint; verbose logging, tracing, and other instrumentation run in direct opposition to this. As a consequence, the internal machinations of a VA -- particularly to developers coming from a purely applications-level background -- become somewhat of a black box.
Forensics: I think Ed Haletky put it to me best at a long-ago VMworld: "...I want a snapshot of guest memory..." (paraphrased) to which I could provide only a partial solution at the time -- there was no tool available to customers.
In both cases there are clear benefits to being able to perform out-of-band inspection on whole-guest and/or single-process memory from a snapshot, typically where VM Record/Replay isn't available (incident response), isn't possible (guest running on someone else's dime), or isn't practical (production environment policies).
obDisclaimer: I was only peripherally involved in the coding side of this tool. My interests were in completeness, usability, documentation, and pushing to get it out the door into the hands of those customers I felt could most appreciate it.
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