ESXi Installation – Relocating modules and starting up the kernel

If you’ve ever tried to install ESX and had
the boot pause/freeze on “Relocating modules and starting up the kernel”
you’ll need a simple little fix to continue going. From what I’ve seen
this only happens on servers that are not a part of the current VMware
Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).

The trick here is to restart the installer/boot sequence. When starting up:Press Shift+O during startup of an ESXi 5.5 installation.

Append the boot option
ignoreHeadless=TRUE

Press the Enter key to continue boot.


Once installation is completed, set the VMkernel boot-time parameter in persistent configuration using the command:
esxcfg-advcfg -k TRUE ignoreHeadlessThis should get you on your way to running ESX on a non HCL hardware.