I spent three weeks trying.
I used each and every tutorial on Steemit I could find.
I never got a working version up and running which is sad since I own a hosting company and can reproduce the Ubuntu servers when ever I want one.
I even thought about giving someone a free witness server for a year if they would build me one too. That offer still stands but this is the only place I have published it.
Good Luck and if you have not yet started you might want to make a detailed record of your steps.
Again... Good Luck.
RE: I'm setting up a witness server, to learn best what it's all about.