Web2py (Python framework) includes an Ubuntu (and other) setup scripts plus a Fabric fab file for one command deploys that works pretty well. Web2py comes with a bootstrap welcome app that gives you user mgmt, authentication, admin and DB access with about a click.
I've web2py on digital ocean. A good thing is it's multi app so if you want another you click new and have a new hello world almost instantly. Setting up www.myhello-world.com and linking it takes about 5 min.
re
>A big aspect of what I'm wondering is about automatically setting something up for keeping local/production environments in sync, quickly deploying to production, and not having to mess with a bunch of server configuration things, user accounts, security, etc.
The config, accounts default to secure useable stuff
Auto is sync doesn't really happen but its a matter of clicking "pack all" on local web2py and then "upload" on the one on the server.
On the minus side it doesn't have that many users.
