diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-core/pom.xml b/pregelix/pregelix-core/pom.xml
index a71d062..cd4dbdb 100644
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-core/pom.xml
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-core/pom.xml
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@
 				<version>2.7.2</version>
 				<configuration>
 					<forkMode>pertest</forkMode>
-					<argLine>-enableassertions -Xmx512m -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
+					<argLine>-enableassertions -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=300m -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
 						-Djava.util.logging.config.file=src/test/resources/logging.properties</argLine>
 					<includes>
 						<include>**/*TestSuite.java</include>
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/core/driver/Driver.java b/pregelix/pregelix-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/core/driver/Driver.java
index 0b99e71..1b6f195 100644
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/core/driver/Driver.java
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/core/driver/Driver.java
@@ -114,11 +114,11 @@
             for (URL url : urls)
                 if (url.toString().endsWith(".jar"))
                     jars.add(new File(url.getPath()));
-
             installApplication(jars);
+
+            start = System.currentTimeMillis();
             FileSystem dfs = FileSystem.get(job.getConfiguration());
             dfs.delete(FileOutputFormat.getOutputPath(job), true);
-
             runCreate(jobGen);
             runDataLoad(jobGen);
             end = System.currentTimeMillis();
@@ -213,8 +213,15 @@
         for (File jar : jars) {
             allJars.add(jar.getAbsolutePath());
         }
+        long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
         File appZip = Utilities.getHyracksArchive(applicationName, allJars);
+        long end = System.currentTimeMillis();
+        LOG.info("jar packing finished " + (end - start) + "ms");
+
+        start = System.currentTimeMillis();
         hcc.createApplication(applicationName, appZip);
+        end = System.currentTimeMillis();
+        LOG.info("jar deployment finished " + (end - start) + "ms");
     }
 
     public void destroyApplication(String jarFile) throws Exception {
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/core/util/Utilities.java b/pregelix/pregelix-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/core/util/Utilities.java
index 74fb1b6..3566bf9 100644
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/core/util/Utilities.java
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/core/util/Utilities.java
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@
     public static File getHyracksArchive(String applicationName, Set<String> libJars) {
         String target = applicationName + ".zip";
         // Create a buffer for reading the files
-        byte[] buf = new byte[1024];
+        byte[] buf = new byte[32768];
         Set<String> fileNames = new HashSet<String>();
         try {
             ZipOutputStream out = new ZipOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(target));
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-dataflow-std/pom.xml b/pregelix/pregelix-dataflow-std/pom.xml
index ab513c6..8e8824b 100644
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-dataflow-std/pom.xml
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-dataflow-std/pom.xml
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 				<version>2.7.2</version>
 				<configuration>
 					<forkMode>pertest</forkMode>
-					<argLine>-enableassertions -Xmx1000m -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
+					<argLine>-enableassertions -Xmx512m -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
 						-Djava.util.logging.config.file=src/test/resources/logging.properties</argLine>
 					<includes>
 						<include>**/*TestSuite.java</include>
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-example/pom.xml b/pregelix/pregelix-example/pom.xml
index c44ad60..9e9cc0a 100644
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-example/pom.xml
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-example/pom.xml
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@
 				<version>2.7.2</version>
 				<configuration>
 					<forkMode>pertest</forkMode>
-					<argLine>-enableassertions -Xmx512m -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
+					<argLine>-enableassertions -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=300m -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
 						-Djava.util.logging.config.file=src/test/resources/logging.properties</argLine>
 					<includes>
 						<include>**/*TestSuite.java</include>