I eventually found a working solution:
- don't use the external ssh tool (PuTTY), but only the maven-internal ssh/scp implementation
- thus, use wagon-ssh (not wagon-ssh-external)
- add username, private key location and passphrase to settings.xml (sadly, cannot use pageant, but must hardcode my passphrase in settings.xml (beuh) )
So the POM looks like (note, scp:// protocol is used for the url)
<project>
...
<distributionManagement>
<repository>
<id>my-repository</id>
<url>scp://repo.myserver.com/path/to/repo/</url>
</repository>
</distributionManagement>
...
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-bundle-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.3.7</version>
<extensions>true</extensions>
<configuration>
...
<remoteOBR>my-repository</remoteOBR>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
<extensions>
<extension>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.wagon</groupId>
<artifactId>wagon-ssh</artifactId>
<version>2.5</version>
</extension>
</extensions>
</build>
...
And settings.xml (which is located at C:\Users\myUsernameOnWindows\.m2\)
<settings>
<servers>
<server>
<id>my-repository</id>
<username>myUsernameOnRepo</username>
<privateKey>C:/path/to/private/key/id_rsa</privateKey>
<passphrase>myPrivateKeyPassphrase</passphrase>
</server>
</servers>
</settings>