As per the vSphere 7.0 release notes the following CPU processors are no longer supported:
- Intel Family 6, Model = 2C (Westmere-EP)
- Intel Family 6, Model = 2F (Westmere-EX)
You can append the following ESXi boot option which will allow you to bypass the unsupported CPU during the installation/upgrade. To do so, just use SHIFT+O and append the following:
allowLegacyCPU=True
Note: This is not officially supported by VMware, this changes can be done for home lab use but not for production as there might be some issues that you might encounter with.
VirtuallyVTrue 
One question though, it’s working to start from USB but the installer won’t start after adding this line. When using Shift+O it shows ‘cdromboot weasel’ (or something along those lines) Now trying to add ‘allowLegacyCPU=true behind that line to see what happens. But during the installation the error comes back again ‘CPU_SUPPORT WARNING’
So how do you get past the installer?
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