diff --git a/check-copy-progess.sh b/check-copy-progess.sh
index 16d23bc..b73fc67 100755
--- a/check-copy-progess.sh
+++ b/check-copy-progess.sh
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@
 # Usage
 # check-copy-progress <private_key_path> <file-with-hostnames>
 
-pssh -i -x "-i $1" -l root -h $2 '~/ephemeral-hdfs/bin/hadoop fs -dus /'
+parallel-ssh -i -x "-i $1" -l root -h $2 '~/ephemeral-hdfs/bin/hadoop fs -dus /'
diff --git a/launch_ampcamp3_cluster.py b/launch_ampcamp3_cluster.py
index d52db9f..d8c1cb1 100755
--- a/launch_ampcamp3_cluster.py
+++ b/launch_ampcamp3_cluster.py
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ def parse_args():
   parser.add_option("-t", "--instance-type", default="m1.xlarge",
       help="Type of instance to launch (default: m1.xlarge). " +
            "WARNING: must be 64-bit; small instances won't work")
+  parser.add_option("-r", "--region", default="us-east-1",
+      help="EC2 region zone to launch instances in")
 
   parser.add_option("-w", "--wait", type="int", default=120,
       help="Seconds to wait for nodes to start (default: 120)")
@@ -54,7 +56,6 @@ def parse_args():
 
 def main():
   (opts, spark_script_path) = parse_args()
-  availability_zones = ["us-east-1b", "us-east-1d", "us-east-1a"]
   subprocesses = []
   cluster_names = []
 
@@ -79,9 +80,8 @@ def main():
     args.append('-w')
     args.append(str(opts.wait))
 
-#   NOTE(shivaram): Don't pass availability zone as EC2 will pick one on its own
-    args.append('-z')
-    args.append(availability_zones[cluster % len(availability_zones)])
+    args.append('-r')
+    args.append(opts.region)
 
     if opts.copy:
       args.append('--copy')
diff --git a/spark_ec2.py b/spark_ec2.py
index 643410f..6439b73 100755
--- a/spark_ec2.py
+++ b/spark_ec2.py
@@ -414,7 +414,7 @@ def setup_cluster(conn, master_nodes, slave_nodes, zoo_nodes, opts, deploy_ssh_k
   # NOTE: We should clone the repository before running deploy_files to
   # prevent ec2-variables.sh from being overwritten
   ssh(master, opts,
-      "rm -rf spark-ec2 && git clone -b ampcamp3 https://github.com/mesos/spark-ec2.git")
+      "rm -rf spark-ec2 && git clone -b sparksummit1 https://github.com/mesos/spark-ec2.git")
 
   print "Deploying files to master..."
   deploy_files(conn, "deploy.generic", opts, master_nodes, slave_nodes,