OK, so here is where I am now. The apache user does not have a home directory so I have:

1. created a directory, /var/www/localhost/htdocs/switchdb/.ssh
2. I added id_dsa and id_rsa from my own user .ssh directory
3. created an identity file with the connection data again extracted from my .ssh directory.
4. changed owner to apache with 700 perms on directory an all sub-files
5. modified the code so it now looks like this

my %params = ( protocol => "2", debug => "true", use_pty => 0, interac
+tive => "false", identity_files => ("/var/www/localhost/htdocs/switch
+db/.ssh/identity") );
[download]

I am now getting further in my code but get the following:

Starting run_pna_switch.pl
processing request for pna_swid 17 and mode on
processing request for pna_swid 17 and mode on
entering Net:SSH:Perl->new command
entering SSH->login command
The authenticity of host '146.6.167.199' can't be established.
Key fingerprint is 99:80:ac:53:50:14:5f:9a:04:ce:5f:44:0f:5c:7d:39.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? [yes]
[download]

So, of course I tried to run the code as 'su - apache /usr/bin/perl code.pl' but it does not run and does not produce any output and does not ask me the question. I am stumped here as to why this code won't run for me as apache on the cli to get this interactive question answered.

Actually, nothing that I run as 'su - apache' works including 'su - apache ssh 1.2.3.4' to try to do this interactively from the cli.

Ed