diff --git a/call_get_db.sh b/call_get_db.sh
index 699295a90271d6cc6d0320e9a0ecd8dec6aca645..1dcbde3958d7d8c4b8f325e9319b98f6f2051e1a 100755
--- a/call_get_db.sh
+++ b/call_get_db.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 for machine in $(aws ec2 describe-instances --region us-east-2 --instance-ids --query Reservations[].Instances[].PublicIpAddress --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=high-spec" --output=text); do
     echo "Invoking graph DB setup in $machine - STARTED"
-    ssh -i "pdbe-kp.pem" ec2-user@$machine "nohup ./usr/local/bin/get_db.sh > nohup.out 2>&1 &"
+    ssh -i "$HOME/pdbe-kp.pem" ec2-user@$machine "nohup ./get_db.sh > nohup.out 2>&1 &"
     echo "Invoking graph DB setup in $machine - ENDED"
 done
 
diff --git a/highspec/startup.sh b/highspec/startup.sh
index 5c642dd136a778c88bd02ca74c5b49cefaa9315f..72f97bd7d2b1df2c7d3023ff88d8981505ba8921 100644
--- a/highspec/startup.sh
+++ b/highspec/startup.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,13 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
+# update yum
+yum update -y
+
+# install dependencies
+wget $PBZIP_BASE_URL/$PBZIP_PACKAGE
+yum install $PBZIP_PACKAGE -y
+rm $PBZIP_PACKAGE
+
 # get the SSD device name
 device=$(lsblk | grep nvme0n1 | cut -d' ' -f1)