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[1] https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/initial-server-setup-with-ubuntu-14-04 [2] https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/additional-recommended-steps-for-new-ubuntu-14-04-servers
For testing the scripts, I've used virtualbox -- install the latest ubuntu server LTS into a VMinstall your ssh keys, dotfiles, etc but leave it otherwise bare-bones. Then, clone it (this takes just a few seconds) and do your testing inside the clone. When you need a clean environment, delete the clone and create a new one... Makes for fast iteration on testing that install scripts always work. Don't configure anything by hand -- learn enough sed/awk/grep/etc to modify what configs you need without invoking an editor.
If you need to scale this up to something real and in production on multiple systems -- then start learning Ansible / Salt / etc. Doing in those systems what you now have documented in bash scripts will be some work, but doable.