Should the DNS and DHCP server be on the same machine?

Question

We are experiencing an issue with users not being mapped to their corresponding network drives during login. I verified that the logon script is correct, and it works if I run it manually so I suspect there is some kind of network issue.

When I run gpupdate, I get an error that states that:

Group Policy failed because of lack network connectivity to the domain controller

I can ping our DC server immediately after I get this error. I figured this was somehow related to the DNS and/or DHCP server. The DNS service is running on the DC and the DHCP service is running on a Pfsense system.

Should I move the DHCP server to the DC?

Solution

Should I move the DHCP server to the DC?

There's no reason to. In fact, it's best security practice not to run it on a DC. The only reason I ever set up a DHCP server on a DC is in SMB networks that don't have any other choice.

Comments

[joeqwerty]

What does the evidence tell you? You can ping the DC immediately after the error, which would indicate that the machine has a valid ip configuration, which would tend to rule out DHCP as the problem.

[John Gardeniers]

-1 for even suggesting that addresses be statically assigned. For servers yes but not for workstations. Doing so just creates more trouble than it could ever hope to solve.

[rrahman_bd]

Thats why i said if it's no problem. Depends on the situation. Thanks for you comment.

[Val]

My DHCP server is pointing to DC as its DNS server but how is DNS supposed to get its info from the DHCP if it is in two different locations?

[MDMarra]

That comment doesn't make much sense. Do you mean that your DHCP server has Option 6 (DNS Servers) configured to tell clients to use your DCs as DNS servers? If so, there's nothing Windows/DC specific about that option. You can set it on any RFC compliant DHCP server.