This my type of setting up a debian non-gui root server. Use this at your own risk! I use debian for a long time and added some configuration that prevented some errors. If you have questions or suggestions please contact me.
At installing time of the server I use the DVD-Image and set up the server using a full qualified domain name. When it comes to partitioning the server I always use the entire disk as one partition. This is because I don't want to think about placing any files into the wrong partition. Also I mostly use the opt folder instead of the home folder to place some scripts or software.