General setup questions

I'm struggling through getting my first cas instance setup and am having issues with what I think is related to SSH. Is there any documentation detailing how to setup users / ssh or how to setup cas in general? (other than what's on the wiki). Specifically, I'm trying to do a cas-admin -s to build my initial database (right). Using any other user than root here (although that appears to be "recommended") errors out. But to use root, I need to allow root ssh, create a key, etc... none of which is ideal, right? Also, even after doing that, I still get the error: [root@host1 .ssh]# cas-admin -s [.cas.] :: Building CAS Server DB instance. [.cas.][debug] :: Failed to connect to tchsacas01: Authentication failed. I can keep trying different things, but I feel like there's some critical piece of documentation I must be missing. Any guidance you can provide would be great. </pre> <P><hr size=1></P> <P><STRONG><font color=green>Please consider the environment before printing this email.</font></STRONG></P> <P><STRONG>Visit our website at <a href="http://www.nyse.com">http://www.nyse.com</a> <br> ***************************************************************************** <br> Note: The information contained in this message and any attachment to it is privileged, confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by replying to the message, and please delete it from your system. Thank you. NYSE Euronext. </STRONG></P><pre>