Rails/net-ssh - ssh to remote server with private key in Heroku - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm trying to ssh to a remote server using a private key through Heroku.
I'm using this gem https://github.com/net-ssh/net-ssh to complete the request and have everything working fine locally.
The reason why everything works fine locally is because I have the private key saved with the passphrase entered. When I deploy to Heroku, I'm unable to use the agent like I have it on my PC and so the connection fails.
I have changed the settings on the connection using net-ssh to not use the agent but still can't get it functioning.
Worst case I will have to create a separate API call in php hosted elsewhere to complete this connection but I'm hoping I can make it work through my rails app in Heroku.
This is what I'm currently doing:
options = {}
options[:key_data] = ENV['LANDING_PAGE_SSH_KEY']
options[:keys_only] = true
options[:use_agent] = false
options[:verbose] = :debug
options[:port] = '18765'
options[:passphrase] = ENV['SSH_KEY_PASSPHRASE']
Net::SSH.start(ENV['SERVER_HOSTNAME'], ENV['SERVER_USERNAME'], options) do |ssh|
end
I've entered the private key in a global variable and everything else that I would need. This also works locally without using the agent but fails on Heroku with this message:
[2017-07-21T19:20:35.506794 #4] DEBUG -- socket[383b2bc]: read 52 bytes
2017-07-21T19:20:35.507070+00:00 app[web.1]: D, [2017-07-21T19:20:35.507016 #4] DEBUG -- socket[383b2bc]: received packet nr 3 type 6 len 28
2017-07-21T19:20:35.507262+00:00 app[web.1]: D, [2017-07-21T19:20:35.507210 #4] DEBUG -- net.ssh.authentication.session[3fd3f610f914]: trying none
2017-07-21T19:20:35.507477+00:00 app[web.1]: D, [2017-07-21T19:20:35.507412 #4] DEBUG -- socket[383b2bc]: queueing packet nr 4 type 50 len 44
2017-07-21T19:20:35.507603+00:00 app[web.1]: D, [2017-07-21T19:20:35.507553 #4] DEBUG -- socket[383b2bc]: sent 68 bytes
2017-07-21T19:20:35.536336+00:00 app[web.1]: D, [2017-07-21T19:20:35.536194 #4] DEBUG -- socket[383b2bc]: read 52 bytes
2017-07-21T19:20:35.536472+00:00 app[web.1]: D, [2017-07-21T19:20:35.536422 #4] DEBUG -- socket[383b2bc]: received packet nr 4 type 51 len 28
2017-07-21T19:20:35.536573+00:00 app[web.1]: D, [2017-07-21T19:20:35.536526 #4] DEBUG -- net.ssh.authentication.session[3fd3f610f914]: allowed methods: publickey
2017-07-21T19:20:35.536657+00:00 app[web.1]: D, [2017-07-21T19:20:35.536612 #4] DEBUG -- net.ssh.authentication.methods.none[3fd3f6103e84]: none failed
2017-07-21T19:20:35.536749+00:00 app[web.1]: D, [2017-07-21T19:20:35.536703 #4] DEBUG -- net.ssh.authentication.session[3fd3f610f914]: trying publickey
2017-07-21T19:20:35.537566+00:00 app[web.1]: Enter passphrase for <key in memory>:Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 337ms (ActiveRecord: 1.4ms)
2017-07-21T19:20:35.538404+00:00 app[web.1]:
2017-07-21T19:20:35.538406+00:00 app[web.1]: Errno::ENOTTY (Inappropriate ioctl for device):
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

In my case I needed to add the private key to the server's ssh setup
ssh-add ~/.ssh/path-to-private-key
and it started working.