We've had a few issues with our Windows DHCP server failing. I'm a linux guy by nature, but not a systems guy (I'm a programmer who happens to be running IT for ~800 users), but I'm curious: how crazy would it be to just set up a couple of linux boxes to be redundant DHCP servers, either with a split scope or with some of them set up as failovers.
If we go that route, what specs are needed for a box to simply act as a reliable DHCP server?
I'm imagining we could commit these computers to acting only as DHCP and leave our Windows server as an AD controller, a fileserver, etc. Our organization has lots of users who just need wireless to work, so having DHCP reliable even when the Windows server down would be a major benefit -- my gut is that it shouldn't be hard to set up some computers to just do DHCP + DNS and do it well, but consultants I've talked to have warned us against it in the past, so I'm curious what serverfault thinks.