F5 iApp Automated Backup

how can i make sure that this uses SFTP and not SCP. this is creating a local backup but failing to push with SFTP.

these are the steps i have performed

Generated key pair with public key assigned to the user in S3 SFTP server

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C f5_backups

from command line i am able to access the SFTP server and list and put/mput the files

ucs # sftp -i id_rsa f5-backup-test@10.164.2.31

Connected to 10.164.2.31.

sftp> ls

test

from the iApp script in th e/var/tmp/scriptd.out gives this logs

Bckup iApp admin: ip-10-164-2-49..ucs SAVED LOCALLY (/var/local/ucs)

f5.automated_backup iApp admin: ip-10-164-2-49..ucs REMOTE COPY (SCP) STARTING

which uses SCP..

is there a way to specifically make it SFTP transfer,

or any idea why this is failing,

i have copied the private and public files from location /root/.ssh to /var/ssh/root/ locatins as well (both the locations have the private and public key pair.)

/var/ssh/root/authorized_keys file is empty

and authorised

This is using SCP rather than SFTP.