diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-rds-db/start.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-rds-db/start.py
index c59c7527a867bf01c7f0da0cd3c4c1350687d1fc..dc07938355eb25972aa303a4579cf516ef3e19dd 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-rds-db/start.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-rds-db/start.py
@@ -28,9 +28,13 @@ imageId = 'ami-0d5eff06f840b45e9'
 
 # potentially change instanceType to t2.micro for "free tier" if using a regular account
 # for production, t3.nano seams better
-instanceType = 't2.nano'
+# as of SoSe 2022 t2.nano seams to be a bit too low on memory, mariadb first start can fail
+# due to innodb cache out of memory, therefore t2.micro or swap in t2.nano currently recommended
+# instanceType = 't2.nano'
+instanceType = 't2.micro'
 
-keyName = 'srieger-pub'
+# keyName = 'srieger-pub'
+keyName = 'vockey'
 
 ################################################################################################
 #
@@ -139,7 +143,10 @@ except ClientError as e:
 
 print("Running new DB instance...")
 print("------------------------------------")
+print("...can take 10s of minutes using free AWS accounts and also takes substantially more time compared to"
+      " creating an EC2 instance also for payed accounts.")
 
+# TODO potentially upgrade to recent RDS instance types (t4g.small or t3.small), possibly switch to mariadb or aurora
 response = rdsClient.create_db_instance(DBInstanceIdentifier="tug-of-war-rds-db1",
     AllocatedStorage=20,
     DBName='cloud_tug_of_war',
@@ -237,4 +244,11 @@ for i in range(1, 2):
     instance.wait_until_running()
     instance.load()
 
-    print("tug-of-war-in-the-clouds can be accessed at: " + instance.public_ip_address)
+    print("tug-of-war-in-the-clouds can be accessed at: http://" + instance.public_ip_address)
+
+    print("This example uses an RDS instance (managed MySQL offered by AWS) instead of installing the db on our own in"
+          "an EC2 instance. You can see different options esp. for replication etc. in RDS. The larger the instance,"
+          "the more fault tolerance options (esp. for Aurora) and performance, but obviously at higher costs. Compare"
+          " the trade-off between flexibility, maintenance effort and related costs.")
+
+    print("You can watch the creation of the DB in the cli using 'aws rds ...' or the web console.")
diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-rds-db/stop.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-rds-db/stop.py
index 53c26540acf9b5f486d3af2e6cbe3814185d5c61..d89ee68be4f0c0aa3de6b667b8f01225bf456dec 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-rds-db/stop.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-rds-db/stop.py
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ subnet_id = ec2Client.describe_subnets(
         }
     ])['Subnets'][0]['SubnetId']
 
-print("Deleting old instance...")
+print("Deleting instance...")
 print("------------------------------------")
 
 response = ec2Client.describe_instances(Filters=[{'Name': 'tag-key', 'Values': ['tug-of-war-rds']}])
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ for reservation in reservations:
             instanceToTerminate = ec2Resource.Instance(instance['InstanceId'])
             instanceToTerminate.wait_until_terminated()
 
-print("Deleting old DB instance...")
+print("Deleting DB instance...")
 print("------------------------------------")
 
 try:
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ waiter.wait(DBInstanceIdentifier='tug-of-war-rds-db1')
 
 #time.sleep(5)
 
-print("Delete old security group...")
+print("Delete security group...")
 print("------------------------------------")
 
 try:
diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db-autoscaling/start.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db-autoscaling/start.py
index be9c2b405284038c31ac8aa6eef6fba5fab9d239..edb772c9b0502b06606309312db30524644f5498 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db-autoscaling/start.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db-autoscaling/start.py
@@ -41,6 +41,10 @@ instanceType = 't2.micro'
 # keyName = 'srieger-pub'
 keyName = 'vockey'
 
+# see, e.g., AWS Academy Lab readme, or "aws iam list-instance-profiles | grep InstanceProfileName"
+# for roles see: "aws iam list-roles | grep RoleName"
+iamRole = 'LabInstanceProfile'
+
 
 ################################################################################################
 #
@@ -85,7 +89,7 @@ subnet_id3 = ec2Client.describe_subnets(
     ])['Subnets'][0]['SubnetId']
 
 
-print("Deleting auto scaling group...")
+print("Deleting old auto scaling group...")
 print("------------------------------------")
 
 try:
@@ -93,7 +97,7 @@ try:
 except ClientError as e:
     print(e)
 
-print("Deleting launch configuration...")
+print("Deleting old launch configuration...")
 print("------------------------------------")
 
 try:
@@ -118,7 +122,7 @@ for reservation in reservations:
             instanceToTerminate.wait_until_terminated()
 
 
-print("Deleting load balancer and deps...")
+print("Deleting old load balancer and deps...")
 print("------------------------------------")
 
 try:
@@ -275,7 +279,7 @@ print("------------------------------------")
 
 response = asClient.create_launch_configuration(
     #IamInstanceProfile='my-iam-role',
-    IamInstanceProfile='EMR_AutoScaling_DefaultRole ',
+    IamInstanceProfile=iamRole,
     ImageId=imageId,
     InstanceType=instanceType,
     LaunchConfigurationName='tug-of-war-asg-launchconfig',
@@ -367,6 +371,9 @@ print(loadbalancer_arn)
 print(targetgroup_arn)
 print('app/tug-of-war-asg-loadbalancer/'+str(loadbalancer_arn).split('/')[3]+'/targetgroup/tug-of-war-asg-targetgroup/'+str(targetgroup_arn).split('/')[2])
 
+print('If target group is not found, creation was delayed in AWS Academy lab, need to add a check that target group is'
+      'existing before executing the next lines in the future... If the error occurs, rerun script...')
+
 response = asClient.put_scaling_policy(
     AutoScalingGroupName='tug-of-war-asg-autoscalinggroup',
     PolicyName='tug-of-war-asg-scalingpolicy',
@@ -381,4 +388,15 @@ response = asClient.put_scaling_policy(
     }
 )
 
-print('Load Balancer should be reachable at: ' + loadbalancer_dns)
+print('Load Balancer should be reachable at: http://' + loadbalancer_dns)
+
+print('As always, you need to wait some time, until load balancer is provisioned, instances are healthy (cloud-init '
+      'did its job as specified in the launch configuration). ')
+
+print('You can use "aws elbv2 ..." commands or the web console to examine the current state. Take a look at Load'
+      'Balancer, Target Group, Auto Scaling Group and esp. Monitoring of the Load Balancer and related Cloud Watch'
+      'alarms.')
+
+print('If you "pull" a lot of clouds in the game, generating a lot of requests, you will see the alarm being fired and'
+      'further instances started (scale-out) (involves some clicking for about three minutes). After 15 min of idling,'
+      'instances will automatically be stopped (scale-in).')
diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db-autoscaling/stop.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db-autoscaling/stop.py
index 3e2ccbf35de166d2547ac8c2e34dd8ac5c782969..ca8291ab2e5e3b12b1177826437b2ce164a59ca2 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db-autoscaling/stop.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db-autoscaling/stop.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ except ClientError as e:
 
 
 
-print("Deleting old instances...")
+print("Deleting instances...")
 print("------------------------------------")
 
 response = ec2Client.describe_instances(Filters=[{'Name': 'tag-key', 'Values': ['tug-of-war-asg']}])
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ try:
 except ClientError as e:
     print(e)
 
-print("Delete old security group...")
+print("Delete security group...")
 print("------------------------------------")
 
 try:
diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/create-loadbalancer.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/create-loadbalancer.py
index 98b6c385bc53577accfdc4e98937b0c23e43d283..031fba0f26adef1398cbf8008cde5874f9f05759 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/create-loadbalancer.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/create-loadbalancer.py
@@ -148,4 +148,4 @@ print('Waiting for Load Balancer to become available...')
 
 waiter = elbv2Client.get_waiter('load_balancer_available')
 waiter.wait(LoadBalancerArns=[loadbalancer_arn])
-print('Load Balancer should be reachable at: ' + loadbalancer_dns)
+print('Load Balancer should be reachable at: http://' + loadbalancer_dns)
diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start-and-add-new-target.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start-and-add-new-target.py
index cb96ee1ef185be85b609ad5bc1530a92cf5d36e0..8262ee5d4aa4567dfc47c7c2fd07f89024b2b052 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start-and-add-new-target.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start-and-add-new-target.py
@@ -90,8 +90,8 @@ userDataWebServer = ('#!/bin/bash\n'
 
 
 for i in range(3, 4):
-    print("Running new Web Server instance...")
-    print("------------------------------------")
+    print("Running new Web Server instance (in additional availability zone)...")
+    print("-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------")
 
     response = ec2Client.run_instances(
         ImageId=imageId,
@@ -135,15 +135,15 @@ for i in range(3, 4):
         print("Could not get public IP using boto3, this is likely an AWS Educate problem. You can however lookup the "
               "public ip from the AWS management console.")
 
+print("Registering instance in load balancer, load balancer has to be already created...")
+print("-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------")
+
 try:
     response = elbv2Client.describe_target_groups(Names=['tug-of-war-targetgroup'])
     targetgroup_arn = response.get('TargetGroups', [{}])[0].get('TargetGroupArn', '')
 except ClientError as e:
     print(e)
 
-print("Registering instance...")
-print("------------------------------------")
-
 response = elbv2Client.register_targets(
     TargetGroupArn=targetgroup_arn,
     Targets=[
diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/stop.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/stop.py
index 48ff8c21fcfe85448e5f1ce5426905d7862d5e8d..8a8329685bcf9b1aebd59bdb15a3796f2388c839 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/stop.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/stop.py
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ except ClientError as e:
 
 
 
-print("Deleting old instances...")
+print("Deleting instances...")
 print("------------------------------------")
 
 response = ec2Client.describe_instances(Filters=[{'Name': 'tag-key', 'Values': ['tug-of-war']}])
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ for reservation in reservations:
             instanceToTerminate = ec2Resource.Instance(instance['InstanceId'])
             instanceToTerminate.wait_until_terminated()
 
-print("Delete old security group...")
+print("Delete security group...")
 print("------------------------------------")
 
 try: