Budget 90k+ Rig for Virtualization, Programming, Machine Learning and VAPT.

linux kvm ftw. i don’t recommend vmware or hyperv. sriov works perfectly but i have never tried gpu passthru. should work if the drivers support it.
 
So you mean to say if i use kali over vm i cant use GPU to Brute Force?
Also what if I dont install VMware Instead if I go for VirtualBox will it still wont allow GPU passthrough.

VMware Workstation does not support GPU/PCI passthrough. They suggest to use ESXi for it. I cant say about Virtualbox true support for GPU passthrough but you can check it here - https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualization/virtualbox/6.0/admin/pcipassthrough.html
One more thing, VMware also does not officially supports KALI Linux. Debian they do or in other words, the Support vanilla build for Linux and not Cinnamon,Parrot, Elementary or Kali,Lubuntu etc etc.
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do you recommend going with Ubuntu KVM solution or in worst case with Hyper-V based solution (through Win10)

I have E5 1620 with DX79TO and 32 GB DDR3 RAM with 2x1060 6GB ones - My workload (NLP) requires fewer resources than CV - if I do this, I will get an option to run the system into separate containers/docker and also ensure deployable solution tested before putting it into source control

Initially when i was learning and could not afford to pay for a software, i went with VB or Vitualbox. Then someone introduced me with VMware Workstation 9 or 10 which i have been using till this date and i can tell you that its come a long way. I have a soft spot for Ubuntu in partcular so KVM is also a good choice or option. You can also check Proxmox, its getting popular these days.
Would agree with you on Hyper-V. I haven't used it much, just once, that was to build an Elementary OS VM.

I think hardware, you are good, thats depending on the workload again.
 
Initially when i was learning and could not afford to pay for a software, i went with VB or Vitualbox. Then someone introduced me with VMware Workstation 9 or 10 which i have been using till this date and i can tell you that its come a long way. I have a soft spot for Ubuntu in partcular so KVM is also a good choice or option. You can also check Proxmox, its getting popular these days.
Would agree with you on Hyper-V. I haven't used it much, just once, that was to build an Elementary OS VM.

I think hardware, you are good, thats depending on the workload again.
Let me evaluate both the options and share my experience.

Thanks for your suggestion
 
Let me evaluate both the options and share my experience.

Thanks for your suggestion
Yeah Nikhil, dont splurge do much into hardware. I think you're good from hardware wise but then everyone has their own opinion. For reference, i have a colleague who is running 3900X/64GB RAM with ESXi and running like 8 to 10 virtual machines at the same time with no lag, ofcourse he knows the limit of his hardware. He is mostly using OpenSuse or Debian or Fedora.
 
One more thing, VMware also does not officially supports KALI Linux. Debian they do or in other words, the Support vanilla build for Linux and not Cinnamon,Parrot, Elementary or Kali,Lubuntu etc etc.
Technically, Vmware does not need to QA for OS images. Kali does have Official Vmware,Virtual Box and Hyper-V Images in their website.
Link: https://www.offensive-security.com/kali-linux-vm-vmware-virtualbox-image-download/
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Yeah Nikhil, dont splurge do much into hardware
+1
 
the problem with vmware is that you cannot consistently enable pass through. we never used vmware as its proprietary kernel but i have done a bunch of testing with sriov and exporting raw devices to vms and doing perf tests. like saturating a 10G/25G/100G links in vms etc... kvm wins hands down. virtio drivers work like charm for linux but windows guests will be a bit touchy. but we never used windows guests anyways so its okay. btw, all i said so far is in context of data centers so i am mostly talking about storage and networking. never did ai sorta stuff.
 
Technically, Vmware does not need to QA for OS images. Kali does have Official Vmware,Virtual Box and Hyper-V Images in their website.
Link: https://www.offensive-security.com/kali-linux-vm-vmware-virtualbox-image-download/
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+1

Brother, i have worked closely with VMware and we learned from their Support Team that Kali Linux is not officially supported which means they never tested it. They suggested us to use Vanilla Linux Distro. This is what was shared with us - https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2129859

But then the good part is that in Linux forums, it's easy to find answers. Post Workstation 12, the performance of Linux VM's has been better.
 
OP, have you considered threadripper CPUs. Though AMD killed the TR4 platform but has *promised" to support new gen threadripper (3960X, 3970X) sTRX4 *for a long time*. With new gen threadripper you get tons of PCI-E lanes, potential multi gpu's(4x) , tons of nvme, sata drives i.e. an all round solid workstation which will be "future proof" and can chomp through extreme workloads like butter for few years.

Keep in mind that initial investment is much higher and costs (cooling, memory,storage) scale very fast with threadripper platform, so do your research well for compatibility.

See forum thread for 3960X build example:

 
pickup b450 used/new + your choice of ram and ryzen 1700 at 9999 use proxmox or XCP-NG ,you can use multiple such system lots of core connect them over network switch (home network router works as well) for real network feel. they are light on pocket and easy to sell off ,threadripper is a pain to get off when you resell it and getting an alternate mobo fi mobo goes faulty it is not cheap and availability would be question .Video editors etc would buy ,but Adobe has introduced GPU compute , so i don`t see why anybody would opt for an expensive thread ripper CPU

invest in SSD and for quick spinup of virtual machines and GPU for ML
 
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