diff --git a/scripts/deploy.pl b/scripts/deploy.pl
index 83a8591..e4fe9ba 100755
--- a/scripts/deploy.pl
+++ b/scripts/deploy.pl
@@ -105,16 +105,19 @@ foreach (@db_names) { say " - $_"; }
 # Create dbs for new experiments
 say 'Creating databases...';
 foreach (@experiments) {
-    say "Creating database $db_prefix\_$_...";
+    say " - Creating database $db_prefix\_$_...";
     $dbh->do("create database `$db_prefix\_$_`")
       or die "Failed to create database: " . $dbh->errstr;
 }
 
-# Kill old screen session
-remote( $ssh, "screen", "-S", $screen_name, "-X", "quit" );
+# Kill old screen session (don't check success as a session might not exist)
+say "Killing previous screen session with name $screen_name";
+$ssh->system( "screen", "-XS", $screen_name, "quit" );
 
 # Start new screen session
 my $invoke_runner = "perl " . shell_quote($remote_runner);
+say
+"Starting new screen session with name $screen_name and command $invoke_runner";
 remote( $ssh, "screen", "-dmS", $screen_name, "sh", "-lc",
     "exec $invoke_runner" );
 
diff --git a/scripts/runner.pl b/scripts/runner.pl
index 61b48ca..ce93eca 100644
--- a/scripts/runner.pl
+++ b/scripts/runner.pl
@@ -41,21 +41,23 @@ sub notify {
 sub update_db_config {
     my ($experiment) = @_;
 
-    open( my $fhandle, '<', $remote_db_conf )
+    open( my $readhandle, '<', $remote_db_conf )
       or die "failed to open db.conf: $!";
     my @lines;
-    while ( my $line = <$fhandle> ) {
+    while ( my $line = <$readhandle> ) {
         if ( $line =~ /^database=/ ) {
             $line = "database=$db_prefix\_$experiment";
         }
         push @lines, $line;
     }
-    close($fhandle) or die "failed to close db.conf: $!";
+    close($readhandle) or die "failed to close db.conf: $!";
 
-    open( my $fhandle, '>', $remote_db_conf )
+    open( my $writehandle, '>', $remote_db_conf )
       or die "failed to open db.conf: $!";
-    print( $fhandle, @lines );
-    close($fhandle) or die "failed to close db.conf: $!";
+    print( $writehandle, @lines );
+    close($writehandle) or die "failed to close db.conf: $!";
+
+    say "Updated db.conf for database $db_prefix\_$experiment";
 }
 
 sub cpu_count {