ESXi 7.0b boot menu showing installer and local disk options.

Install/Upgrade ESXi 7.0 on unsupported hardware.

As I was installing\upgrading my lab environment to ESXi 7.0 I received an error that the CPU was unsupported. As per the release notes vSphere 7.0 release notes my CPU is no longer on the compatibility list. Since this is a lab environment I wanted to continue using my current hardware. It goes without saying that this method should not be used in a production environment. To allow the legacy CPU all I had to do is boot up from the ISO, on the boot Menu I pressed TAB or Shift + O and added allowLegacyCPU=True option as seen in the screenshot below ...

August 22, 2020 · Cosmin Trif