File Transfer Between 2 EC2 Instances

I'm planning on transferring a site from one instance to another. Since it's quite a big site, I believe it's better to copy the files from one instance to another directly.

I've followed the instructions found in the 2 links below on how to make sure SCP works:

https://blog.e-zest.com/how-to-do-scp-from-one-ec2-instance-to-another-ec2-instance/ https://blog.microideation.com/2016/05/26/secure-copy-files-scp-between-two-ec2-instances-in-aws/

However, using this command:

scp -v test.txt root@x.x.x.x:/home/test_dest.txt

I'm getting this error:

Executing: program /usr/bin/ssh host x.x.x.x, user root, command scp -v -t /home/test_dest.txt
OpenSSH_6.6.1, OpenSSL 1.0.1k-fips 8 Jan 2015
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 56: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to x.x.x.x [x.x.x.x] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: permanently_set_uid: 0/0
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_rsa type 1
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.6.1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_6.6.1
debug1: match: OpenSSH_6.6.1 pat OpenSSH_6.6.1* compat 0x04000000
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com none
debug1: kex: curve25519-sha256@libssh.org need=16 dh_need=16
debug1: kex: curve25519-sha256@libssh.org need=16 dh_need=16
debug1: sending SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_INIT
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: ECDSA 69:bc:99:1d:e8:09:4f:ce:4a:7f:70:45:a3:1f:06:99
debug1: Host 'x.x.x.x' is known and matches the ECDSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /root/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug1: ssh_ecdsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic
debug1: Next authentication method: gssapi-keyex
debug1: No valid Key exchange context
debug1: Next authentication method: gssapi-with-mic
debug1: Unspecified GSS failure.  Minor code may provide more information
No Kerberos credentials available (default cache: KEYRING:persistent:0)

debug1: Unspecified GSS failure.  Minor code may provide more information
No Kerberos credentials available (default cache: KEYRING:persistent:0)

debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: /root/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic
debug1: Trying private key: /root/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: Trying private key: /root/.ssh/id_ecdsa
debug1: Trying private key: /root/.ssh/id_ed25519
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic).
lost connection

I've checked the Security Group and they're good. File permissions are good as well.

So couple of questions: