I haven't done much with LVM in Linux. In Red Hat 4, it became possible to use it to manage your volumes. In Red Hat 5, it's the default method for dealing with disks. I've done a fair amount with Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) under Solaris, however, it's been awhile. But, the concepts I learned under VxVM are similar to that of the Linux LVM.

One thing that appears to be different about Linux LVM vs VxVM is that LVM only creates raid 0/1 sets and NOT raid 5 sets. If you need Raid 5, you have to use a md device.However, md sets can create 0/1/5 raid sets.