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).

relocating modules1

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.

ignoreheadless_install

Once installation is completed, set the VMkernel boot-time parameter in persistent configuration using the command:
esxcfg-advcfg -k TRUE ignoreHeadless

This should get you on your way to running ESX on a non HCL hardware.