Deliciousbrains have published a complete end-to-end series on Hosting WordPress Yourself on DigitalOcean (works on Linode, Amazon EC2 or one of the many other virtual server providers as well).
The guide explains the entire process of building a complete server to house your WordPress sites step by step and is getting updated to the latest software versions continuously.
It starts at the very beginning and details the complete approach how to build a new server that’s easy to configure, secure, tuned for optimal WordPress performance and scalable for small to medium sized sites.
It is the number one reference on WordPress Hosting on Digital Ocean.