I've run a few debian servers for years with little issues. Set up auto-update (very easy) for security updates. There's really little to go wrong.
I'm sure you can find example setup scripts online (configure autoupdates, firewall, applications, etc.), should be a matter of running 'curl $URL' and then 'chmod +x $FILE' and 'bash $FILE'. I didn't need configuration management (I do use my provider's backup service which is important I guess).