Currently, org.infinispan.util.ModuleProperties.resolveModuleLifecycles(...) uses a ServiceLoader to directly load ModuleLifecycle instances. However, if a jar exists on the classpath containing a META-INF/services/org.infinispan.lifecycle.ModuleLifecycle file, but the class name contained within cannot be loaded, due to, for example, a dependency jar being missing, then the whole resolveModuleLifecycles(...) method chokes due to a ServiceConfigurationError. For example, if infinispan-query is on the classpath, but hibernate-search is not, Infinispan is unusable.

I can see 2 ways to fix this:

1. Use the iterator directly instead of the enhanced for-loop, and catch and handle the SCE:
e.g.

Iterator<ModuleLifecycle> lifecycles = ServiceLoader.load(ModuleLifecycle.class, classLoader);
while (lifecycles.hasNext()) {
   try {
      ModuleLifecycle lifecycle = lifecycles.next(); // This can throw SCE
      result.add(lifecycle);
   } catch (ServiceConfigurationError e) {
      // Log error
   }
}

2. Introduce a ModuleLifecycleProvider abstraction - that won't throw an SCE. The ServiceLoader spec actually recommends this:
"The provider class is typically not the entire provider itself but rather a proxy which contains enough information to decide whether the provider is able to satisfy a particular request together with code that can create the actual provider on demand."
In the end, this would look something like:

for (ModuleLifecycleFactory factory: ServiceLoader.load(ModuleLifecycleFactory.class, classLoader)) {
   if (factory.isEnabled()) { // returns true if create method will not throw SCE
      ModuleLifecycle lifecycle = factory.createModuleLifecycle();
      result.add(lifecycle);
   }
}