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 40185e1..ec66a27 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
@@ -1,19 +1,38 @@
 import boto3
 from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
 
+
+################################################################################################
+#
+# Configuration Parameters
+#
+################################################################################################
+
+
 region = 'eu-central-1'
 availabilityZone = 'eu-central-1b'
+vpc_id = 'vpc-eedd4187'
 subnet1 = 'subnet-41422b28'
 subnet2 = 'subnet-5c5f6d16'
 subnet3 = 'subnet-6f2ea214'
 
+# if you only have one VPC, vpc_id can be retrieved using:
+#
+# response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
+# vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
+
+
+################################################################################################
+#
+# boto3 code
+#
+################################################################################################
+
+
 client = boto3.setup_default_session(region_name=region)
 ec2Client = boto3.client("ec2")
 ec2Resource = boto3.resource('ec2')
 
-response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
-vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
-
 response = ec2Client.describe_security_groups(Filters=[{'Name': 'group-name', 'Values': ['tug-of-war']}])
 security_group_id = response.get('SecurityGroups', [{}])[0].get('GroupId', '')
 
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 19d221d..8364043 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
@@ -1,20 +1,38 @@
 import boto3
 from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
 
+
+################################################################################################
+#
+# Configuration Parameters
+#
+################################################################################################
+
+
 region = 'eu-central-1'
 availabilityZone = 'eu-central-1b'
+vpc_id = 'vpc-eedd4187'
 imageId = 'ami-0cc293023f983ed53'
 instanceType = 't3.nano'
 keyName = 'srieger-pub'
 
+# if you only have one VPC, vpc_id can be retrieved using:
+#
+# response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
+# vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
+
+
+################################################################################################
+#
+# boto3 code
+#
+################################################################################################
+
 
 client = boto3.setup_default_session(region_name=region)
 ec2Client = boto3.client("ec2")
 ec2Resource = boto3.resource('ec2')
 
-response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
-vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
-
 elbv2Client = boto3.client('elbv2')
 
 response = ec2Client.describe_security_groups(Filters=[{'Name': 'group-name', 'Values': ['tug-of-war']}])
diff --git a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start.py b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start.py
index bf81d05..3a2ae04 100644
--- a/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start.py
+++ b/example-projects/tug-of-war-in-the-clouds/aws-boto3-standalone-db/start.py
@@ -1,39 +1,38 @@
 import boto3
 from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
 
+
+################################################################################################
+#
+# Configuration Parameters
+#
+################################################################################################
+
+
 region = 'eu-central-1'
 availabilityZone = 'eu-central-1b'
+vpc_id = 'vpc-eedd4187'
 imageId = 'ami-0cc293023f983ed53'
 instanceType = 't3.nano'
 keyName = 'srieger-pub'
-userDataDB = ('#!/bin/bash\n'
-              '#!/bin/bash\n'
-              '# extra repo for RedHat rpms\n'
-              'yum install -y https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm\n'
-              '# essential tools\n'
-              'yum install -y joe htop git\n'
-              '# mysql\n'
-              'yum install -y mariadb mariadb-server\n'
-              '\n'
-              'service mariadb start\n'
-              '\n'
-              'echo "create database cloud_tug_of_war" | mysql -u root\n'
-              '\n'
-              'echo "create table clouds ( cloud_id INT AUTO_INCREMENT, name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, value INT, max_value INT, PRIMARY KEY (cloud_id))" | mysql -u root cloud_tug_of_war\n'
-              '\n'
-              'echo "CREATE USER \'cloud_tug_of_war\'@\'%\' IDENTIFIED BY \'cloudpass\';" | mysql -u root\n'
-              'echo "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cloud_tug_of_war.* TO \'cloud_tug_of_war\'@\'%\';" | mysql -u root\n'
-              'echo "FLUSH PRIVILEGES" | mysql -u root\n'
-              )
 
-# convert with: cat install-mysql | sed "s/^/'/; s/$/\\\n'/"
+# if you only have one VPC, vpc_id can be retrieved using:
+#
+# response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
+# vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
+
+
+################################################################################################
+#
+# boto3 code
+#
+################################################################################################
+
 
 client = boto3.setup_default_session(region_name=region)
 ec2Client = boto3.client("ec2")
 ec2Resource = boto3.resource('ec2')
 
-response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
-vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
 subnet_id = ec2Client.describe_subnets(
     Filters=[
         {
@@ -97,6 +96,28 @@ try:
 except ClientError as e:
     print(e)
 
+
+userDataDB = ('#!/bin/bash\n'
+              '#!/bin/bash\n'
+              '# extra repo for RedHat rpms\n'
+              'yum install -y https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm\n'
+              '# essential tools\n'
+              'yum install -y joe htop git\n'
+              '# mysql\n'
+              'yum install -y mariadb mariadb-server\n'
+              '\n'
+              'service mariadb start\n'
+              '\n'
+              'echo "create database cloud_tug_of_war" | mysql -u root\n'
+              '\n'
+              'echo "create table clouds ( cloud_id INT AUTO_INCREMENT, name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, value INT, max_value INT, PRIMARY KEY (cloud_id))" | mysql -u root cloud_tug_of_war\n'
+              '\n'
+              'echo "CREATE USER \'cloud_tug_of_war\'@\'%\' IDENTIFIED BY \'cloudpass\';" | mysql -u root\n'
+              'echo "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cloud_tug_of_war.* TO \'cloud_tug_of_war\'@\'%\';" | mysql -u root\n'
+              'echo "FLUSH PRIVILEGES" | mysql -u root\n'
+              )
+# convert user-data from script with: cat install-mysql | sed "s/^/'/; s/$/\\\n'/"
+
 print("Running new DB instance...")
 print("------------------------------------")
 
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 bcfbac2..3fe5d5e 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
@@ -2,15 +2,34 @@ import time
 import boto3
 from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
 
+
+################################################################################################
+#
+# Configuration Parameters
+#
+################################################################################################
+
+
 region = 'eu-central-1'
+vpc_id = 'vpc-eedd4187'
+
+# if you only have one VPC, vpc_id can be retrieved using:
+#
+# response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
+# vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
+
+
+################################################################################################
+#
+# boto3 code
+#
+################################################################################################
+
 
 client = boto3.setup_default_session(region_name=region)
 ec2Client = boto3.client("ec2")
 ec2Resource = boto3.resource('ec2')
 
-response = ec2Client.describe_vpcs()
-vpc_id = response.get('Vpcs', [{}])[0].get('VpcId', '')
-
 elbv2Client = boto3.client('elbv2')
 
 print("Deleting load balancer and deps...")