[Nottingham] How to partition a server for general home use?

[Jason Irwin]

This should be easy, but all the documentation I can find seems to be
pre-2007 and decidedly obtuse.

The situation:
One HP Microserver
8GB RAM
2x2TB low power SATA HDDs
Optional: 16GB bootable USB stick

Intended use:
Bit of a back-up, bit of a file server (Samba is fine for my needs)
Maybe a bit of a VM hosting at times (possible VBox, maybe something else)
Might even run ownCloud (perhaps in a VM).
So a general purpose dogsbody really.

The problem:
How to partition the bugger?
I'd like the drives to be in RAID1.  Fine, that's easy enough.
I'd also like to use LVM for at least /home so that if I add other
drives later I have less grief.
But can /boot be on LVM?  What about /?  The docs I am finding say "no"
to both.  And what about swap?
So, near as I can figure, I need /boot and / as distinct, non-RAID,
non-LVM partitions.
Then RAID the remaining space (losing the matching/boot and / space on
the second drive)
LVM that and from /home in there
That strikes me as being a bit wrong and overly complex.

I had originally though about have /boot and / on the USB stick, but
then I got into a similar fankle with over /tmp and /var/log.

Does anyone know of an up-to-date reference on this?  I've nothing
against command line-fu at all, but what I am running across assumes the
reader is already an expert.  And is there some unwritten law about
diagrams in Linux docs?  They appear to be forbidden.

Normally I just do /, /home and swap and leave it at that.  I've also
never used LVM before.

Sorry for the semi-rant, any help appreciated!

-- 
Jason Irwin