On proxmox (It's what i used, not a requirement, if you like some other VM, go nuts..
also picked rocky by random chance, did play with alma on first sight seems pretty
similar, doubt there will be many changes if any. )

1) on proxmox in /var/lib/vz/template/cache
2) wget https://us.lxd.images.canonical.com/images/rockylinux/8/amd64/default/20221108_02:06/rootfs.tar.xz
3) mv rootfs.tar.xz rockylinux8_20221108.tar.xz
4) Create new CT in proxmox with this template, start this VM
5) Login as root
6) dnf install openssh-server
7) systemctl start sshd
8) adduser db
9) passwd db
10) usermod -aG wheel db
11) ssh in

On VM as root

1) dnf upgrade --refresh
2) dnf groupinstall "Development Tools"
3) dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools  # The powertools repo has tools like ninja
4) dnf install epel-release # has yasm
5) dnf install gcc-toolset-11 # VFX requires 11.2.1
6) dnf install git cmake # minimum to clone and run `make deps` 
7) dnf install ninja-build tcl meson yasm patchelf # make deps checks for these in cmake
8) dnf install perl-FindBin # ssl   <--------- TODO
9) dnf install libstdc++-static python3-mako libX11-devel libXrandr-devel # mesa
10) dnf install mesa-libGL-devel # GLU
11) dnf install wayland-devel # vulkan_loader
12) dnf install ncurses-devel # ispc 
13) dnf install alsa-lib-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel # openal
14) dnf install libxkbcommon-devel libXi-devel libXxf86vm-devel # blender
15) dnf install subversion # to get blender tests folder

on vm as db

0) add `source scl_source enable gcc-toolset-11` to ~/.bash_profile
1) mkdir blender-git
2) cd blender-git
3) git clone https://git.blender.org/blender.git
4) cd blender
5) git checkout tmp-vfx-platform-2023
5) make deps

Outstanding items:

Mid Prio (Aka hey, that's kinda scketchy, but it's been doing that for a bit... no rush...)
- I saw mesa download expat 2.2.5 during its build? 

Low Prio (Aka we can speed up the build a bit....):
- llvm builds only using a single core 
- shaderc builds with a single core
- usd builds with a single core, 
- dpcpp builds with a single core