Editing Preboot Execution Environment (section)

{{short description|Standard for booting from a server}}
{{For|the TV series episode|Preboot}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2021}}
[[File:PXE diagram.png|thumb|right|upright=1.3|A high-level PXE overview]]

In computing, the '''Preboot eXecution Environment''' ('''PXE'''; often pronounced as {{IPAc-en|'|p|I|k|s|i:}} ''pixie''), often called '''PXE boot''' (''pixie boot''), is a specification describing a standardized [[client–server model|client–server]] environment that [[booting|boots]] a software assembly, retrieved from a network, on PXE-enabled clients.  On the client side it requires only a PXE-capable [[network interface controller]] (NIC), and uses a small set of industry-standard network protocols such as [[Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol]] (DHCP) and [[Trivial File Transfer Protocol]] (TFTP).

The concept behind the PXE originated in the early days of protocols like [[BOOTP]]/DHCP/TFTP, and {{as of|2015|lc=on}} it forms part of the [[UEFI|Unified Extensible Firmware Interface]] (UEFI) standard. In modern data centers, PXE is the most frequent choice<ref name="pxespread">{{cite book 
|last= Avramov
|first= Lucien
|date=December 31, 2014 
|title=The Policy Driven Data Center with ACI: Architecture, Concepts, and Methodology 
|quote= In modern data centers, administrators rarely install new software via removable media such as DVDs. Instead, administrators rely on PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment) booting to image servers.
|publisher=Cisco Press 
|page= 43
|isbn=978-1587144905 
}}</ref> for operating system booting, installation and deployment.