chort .. it seems the sftp -i option is not valid on my version of sftp ??

maybe should use the -o option ?

Whoops! Right you are. My bad.

bugger .. that switch options still did not work .. iam still getting a authentication error.

Can I confirm I need to rename the private key file I got from the host to id_rsa_batch ??

should I ask the remote server to send us a public key instead of a private key ? would that make any difference.

You don't need to name the key anything special. All you need to know is:

The host opening the connection must have the private key.

The host receiving the connection must have the public key.

On the host sending, the key should exist in /home/saturn/.ssh . You can name it anything you like.

On the host receiving, the public key should be appended to /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys .

The user on the sending host doesn't need to be the same as the user on the receiving host, but the private key needs to be in the .ssh directory of the user opening the connection and the public key needs to be in the .ssh/authorized_keys file of the user receiving the file.

I recommended generating a new key without a passphrase so that you don't need to use the key agent. To be clear, I don't recommend removing the passphrase from your current key, what I'm suggesting is to create a new key and append the public portion of it to the /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the host that you're sending the files to.

Ok chort ..

Here is the layout just to be clear on who is sending and who is receiving.



Linux Box ------ > sftp file tx to remote --------> Remote Windows Box
Private Key Key generated from here.

So I have a private key sent by the remote server, as they are the ones who need the files that we send.

I have since asked them to provide a public key for us to use instead of the private. So going by what you stated below they are receiving so they should have the public key ?

This is getting confusing