diff --git a/scripts/aws/run_systemds_script.sh b/scripts/aws/run_systemds_script.sh
index 4c58fcec9bb..db2d7185e24 100755
--- a/scripts/aws/run_systemds_script.sh
+++ b/scripts/aws/run_systemds_script.sh
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ fi
 
 source systemds_cluster.config
 
-aws s3 cp $1 s3://system-ds-bucket/ --exclude "*" --include "*.dml"
+aws s3 cp $1 s3://${BUCKET} --exclude "*" --include "*.dml"
 
 if [ ! -z "$2" ]
 then
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ STEP_INFO=$(aws emr add-steps --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --steps "Type=Spark,
         --driver-memory,$SPARK_DRIVER_MEMORY,
         --num-executors,$SPARK_NUM_EXECUTORS,
         --conf,spark.driver.maxResultSize=0,
-        $SYSTEMDS_JAR_PATH, -f, s3://system-ds-bucket/$dml_filename, -exec, $SYSTEMDS_EXEC_MODE,$args,-stats, -explain]")
+        $SYSTEMDS_JAR_PATH, -f, s3://$BUCKET/$dml_filename, -exec, $SYSTEMDS_EXEC_MODE,$args,-stats, -explain]")
 
 STEP_ID=$(echo $STEP_INFO | jq .StepIds | tr -d '"' | tr -d ']' | tr -d '[' | tr -d '[:space:]' )
 echo "Waiting for the step to finish"
diff --git a/scripts/aws/spinup_systemds_cluster.sh b/scripts/aws/spinup_systemds_cluster.sh
index 8c93a636eae..58f9f2db059 100755
--- a/scripts/aws/spinup_systemds_cluster.sh
+++ b/scripts/aws/spinup_systemds_cluster.sh
@@ -46,9 +46,12 @@ set_config "SPARK_EXECUTOR_MEMORY" $SPARK_EXECUTOR_MEMORY
 set_config "SPARK_DRIVER_MEMORY" "1G"
 set_config "BUCKET" $BUCKET-$(((RANDOM % 999) + 1000))
 
-#Create systemDS bucket
-aws s3api create-bucket --bucket $BUCKET --region $REGION &> /dev/null
-aws s3api create-bucket --bucket $BUCKET-logs --region $REGION &> /dev/null
+#Source again to update the changes for the current session
+source systemds_cluster.config
+
+#Create systemDS bucket (LocationConstraint configuration required regions outside of us-east-1)
+aws s3api create-bucket --bucket $BUCKET --region $REGION --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=$REGION &> /dev/null
+aws s3api create-bucket --bucket $BUCKET-logs --region $REGION --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=$REGION &> /dev/null
 
 # Upload Jar and scripts to s3
 aws s3 sync $SYSTEMDS_TARGET_DIRECTORY s3://$BUCKET --exclude "*" --include "*.dml" --include "*config.xml" --include "*DS.jar*"
@@ -60,11 +63,17 @@ if [ ! -f ${KEYPAIR_NAME}.pem ]; then
     echo "${KEYPAIR_NAME}.pem private key created!"
 fi
 
+#Get the first available subnet in the default VPC of the configured region
+DEFAULT_SUBNET=$(aws ec2 describe-subnets --region $REGION \
+  --filter "Name=defaultForAz,Values=true" --query "Subnets[0].SubnetId" --output text)
+
 #Create the cluster
+#Note: Ganglia not available since emr-6.15.0: exchanged with AmazonCloudWatchAgent
 CLUSTER_INFO=$(aws emr create-cluster \
- --applications Name=Ganglia Name=Spark \
+ --applications Name=AmazonCloudWatchAgent Name=Spark \
  --ec2-attributes '{"KeyName":"'${KEYPAIR_NAME}'",
-  "InstanceProfile":"EMR_EC2_DefaultRole"}'\
+  "InstanceProfile":"EMR_EC2_DefaultRole",
+  "SubnetId": "'${DEFAULT_SUBNET}'"}'\
  --service-role EMR_DefaultRole \
  --enable-debugging \
  --release-label $EMR_VERSION \
@@ -104,6 +113,6 @@ echo "Cluster info:"
 export CLUSTER_URL=$(aws emr describe-cluster --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID | jq .Cluster.MasterPublicDnsName | tr -d '"')
 
 aws emr ssh --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --key-pair-file ${KEYPAIR_NAME}.pem --region $REGION \
-    --command 'aws s3 cp s3://system-ds-bucket/target . --recursive --exclude "*" --include "*DS.jar*"'
+    --command 'aws s3 cp s3://'${BUCKET}' . --recursive --exclude "*" --include "*DS.jar*"'
 
 echo "Spinup finished."
diff --git a/scripts/aws/systemds_cluster.config b/scripts/aws/systemds_cluster.config
index a254bbc8649..8afed8d2bba 100644
--- a/scripts/aws/systemds_cluster.config
+++ b/scripts/aws/systemds_cluster.config
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@
 
 KEYPAIR_NAME="SystemDSkeynamex"
 REGION="us-east-1"
-BUCKET="systemds-bucket"
-EMR_VERSION="emr-5.28.0"
+BUCKET=systemds-bucket
+EMR_VERSION="emr-7.0.0"
 
 INSTANCES_TYPE="m5.xlarge"
 MASTER_INSTANCES_COUNT=1