ISO vs OVA

ISO

The ISO file is essentially just a CD-ROM that can be mounted within our hypervisor of choice to build the VM by installing the operating system ourselves. An ISO gives us more room for customization, e.g., keyboard layout, locale, desktop environment switch, custom partitioning, etc., and therefore a more granular approach when setting up our attack VM.

OVA

The OVA file is a pre-built virtual appliance that contains an OVF XML file that specifies the VM hardware settings and a VMDK, which is the virtual disk that the operating system is installed on. An OVA is pre-built and therefore can be rapidly deployed to get up and running quicker.

Once up and running, we can begin exploring the operating system, becoming familiar with the tools, and performing any desired customizations.