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I looking through the services list on some of the Windows 2012 R2 servers here and noticed that DHCP client is running, despite the servers using static IP on all interfaces.

This seemed like a no-brainer, and safe to stop. However, when I try to stop it I get the warning that that will drag 5(!) other services with it...

enter image description here

Is it safe for me to stop DHCP Client, or will that bring the server to a grinding halt (or affect its network connecivity)?

Evert
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2 Answers2

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As you have discovered on your own, the service is a core component of the Windows networking stack, and thus several other services depend on it; it's really best to leave it running.

If all your NICs are configured with static IP addresses, there really is no problem at all with this setup; the DHCP client service is only actually used when a NIC requires it.

Massimo
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From the service description:

Registers and updates IP addresses and DNS records for this computer.

So no, you shouldn't disable this service if you want the server to register it's DNS records in the relevant AD DNS zone (assuming the server is joined to an AD domain).

As you've shown in your screenshot, other services depend on this service so those dependent services would be affected also.

joeqwerty
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