amazon ec2 - Ubuntu 9.10 cron script 'ec2-consistent-snapshot' unable to execute and access files

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I have a Ubuntu 9.10 image running on
Amazon EC2 and I've setup a backup script
ec2-consisten-snapshot.

I'm able to run the
script from SSH, and everything works
peachy.

sudo
            ec2-consistent-snapshot --mysql --xfs-filesystem /vol vol-xxxxxxx
            >>/mnt/backup.log
            2>&1

However
when I schedule a cron job in sudo crontab -e, the script runs but gives me errors.

12 18 4 2 *
            ec2-consistent-snapshot --mysql --xfs-filesystem /vol vol-xxxxxxx
            >>/mnt/backup.log
            2>&1

ec2-consistent-snapshot: ERROR: Can't find AWS access key or secret access key
at /usr/bin/ec2-consistent-snapshot line 76.
xfs_freeze: cannot unfreeze
filesystem mounted at /vol: Invalid argument
ec2-consistent-snapshot: ERROR:
xfs_freeze -u /vol:
failed(256)

The
AWS access keys are located under $HOME/.awssecret and work fine if you don't run it
from cron

Can someone point me what I need to
do, I've been trying to figure this out for past week.
Also how do I
troubleshoot xfs_freeze that works fine from command
line.

Thank you very much!

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Answer

sudo crontab -e
edits root's crontab right? When you say you have $HOME/.awssecret, what is $HOME?
root's home or yours?

You might want to think
about using /etc/cron.d, you can additionally add the name of the user to execute the
script as in these files (e.g. caution: slightly different syntax for the
scripts)

Edit (answering your question in the
comment):

Create a file
/etc/cron.d/myEc2Crontab

make
it contain:

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=whatever
            you need as your path
12 18 4 2 * root ec2-consistent-snapshot --mysql
            --xfs-filesystem /vol vol-xxxxxxx >>/mnt/backup.log
            2>&1

note the
added 'root' just after the time specification, prior to your command. This specifies
the user the command runs as.